Tackling inequality in times of climate crisis

Activity title

Tackling inequality in times of climate crisis

Overview

Participants discuss the consequences of different measures of inequality in times of climate crisis. 

Objectives

• Participants understand that different measures represent different approaches to inequality.
• Participants get a feeling of the multiplicity of social and environmental outcomes that might result from different measures.
• Participants gain an insight into how well different inequality measures are suited to reduce inequality without overusing the carrying capacity of the planet (biocapacity).

Materials

Cards with measures and short explanations (cut them in rows as each group is supposed to analyse two measures (one row). Make sure to not cut measures into two due to page breaks! 

Time

80 min

Group size

12-25 participants

Instructions for trainers

Introduction (5 min)

Introduce, using chapter 2.2. “Tackling inequality in times of climate crisis”, three different categories of approaches to combat inequality:

-> Taxes or levies are a form of revenue for the government which can be used to redistribute resources as well as to make social ‘bads’ more expensive. 

-> Cash benefits like unemployment benefits or different forms of subsidies mainly look at the individual and her income and can effectively alleviate existential need and strengthen individual self-determination.

-> Social-ecological infrastructures enable people to meet their needs with low resource consumption.

Group phase (45 min) 

Each group chooses one of the five measure pairs. They write the two measures on a flipchart and analyse them in four sequences of brainstorming using different colors. Instruct them to think of all possible answers when brainstorming questions b to d.

1. Which of the three categories (taxes/levies, cash benefits, socio-ecological infrastructure) do the measures belong to? (3 min)
2. How could the proposed measure affect inequality? (red color) (15 min)
3. What could be its impacts on the climate? (green color) (15 min)
4. How effective is the measure in tackling both: inequality and carbon emissions? (black color) (15 min)

Debriefing and evaluation

Plenary harvesting: (30 min)

Each group has 5 minutes to present the results. They should thereby focus on the key learnings (20 min).

Afterwards the whole group discusses which they think is/are the most effective measure/s in social-ecological terms. (10 min).

Tips for trainers

Challenges that might occur:

If groups are overwhelmed by the task, help them in their brainstorming to come to new ideas.