It’s Possible to End Global Poverty Without Compromising Climate Goals, New Research Shows

As the world works to stop global heating by ending the use of fossil fuels in accordance with climate objectives, ensuring that everyone on Earth has a decent standard of living is possible if the world quickly and decisively implements emissions reductions, new research has found.

The study, led by research scholar Jarmo Kikstra with the Energy, Climate and Environment Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), looked at energy scenarios that line up with both the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“With climate change intensifying and billions of people still lacking basic necessities, addressing both challenges simultaneously is not only possible but essential,” a press release from IIASA said.

The authors of the findings analyzed whether scenarios outlined in SDGs and the Paris Agreement provide enough energy for everyone on the planet to have essential services like cooling and heating homes, clean cooking, health care, education and transportation.

“Our goal is to understand what it takes to eliminate extreme poverty while also advancing climate action,” Kikstra said in the press release. “We’re not just talking about lifting people out of extreme poverty; we’re looking at futures with high development ambition, ensuring decent living standards as a minimum for everyone worldwide.”

Using the new DESIRE model, the research team compared energy scenarios that make sustainable development a priority with those that continue with past trends.

“One striking finding is that sustainable development scenarios significantly reduce the number of people consuming less than the minimum required energy for basic needs. Under these scenarios, the number of people that do not have enough energy to meet their basic household needs is projected to decrease by over 90% — a much faster rate of progress than what would be achieved by continuing current trends,” IIASA said.

The study highlights that emissions needed to support decent standards of living are much lower than total emissions.

“Our findings challenge the notion that eradicating poverty and protecting the planet are conflicting goals. In fact, the energy needed to ensure basic human dignity is small compared to what is currently consumed globally,” Kikstra explained. “Even so, such a sustainable development trajectory means growth rates in low-income countries are much higher than we have seen. It requires appropriate development efforts and international support.”

Shonali Pachauri, co-author of the study and leader of the Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions Research Group, pointed out that efficiency, growth and reducing inequality are all important to ensure that everyone is able to get sufficient resources.

“Not only should there be more services where they are needed, it is also very important to improve how services are provided, and to make sure that resources are not wasted, but allocated to those who need them,” Kikstra noted.

The study, “Closing decent living gaps in energy and emissions scenarios: introducing DESIRE,” was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

“Our study is the first to connect detailed studies on energy needs to global integrated modeling for emissions reductions. If done well, future energy needs could be about at least a third lower, while emissions are brought to zero,” said co-author of the study Bas van Ruijven, leader of the Sustainable Service Systems Research Group at IIASA, in the press release.

The authors emphasized the importance of combining climate action with development. They noted, however, that failing to implement effective climate policies will mean that even meeting the bare minimum of basic needs would be impossible without surpassing the limits of the Paris Agreement.

One key takeaway from the study is that only roughly a third of the world’s energy consumption would be needed to support decent standards of living, while the other two-thirds is put toward purposes beyond the fulfilment of basic needs.

In a future such as this — which IIASA said could be achieved in the next two decades — over half the world’s population, including those in low-income nations, would achieve living standards that are more than twice the minimum guideline for decent standards of living for the buildings sector.

“Providing the services that people need worldwide is unlikely to destroy the planet — at least not from an energy perspective. Meeting climate objectives and ensuring decent living for all is within our reach, but it requires immediate and decisive action to reduce emissions,” Kikstra said.