Thomas Piketty and 44 colleagues have just released a plan to do something many thought impossible: double the incomes of 89% of the global population while keeping the planet from overheating. The Global Justice Report, published by the World Inequality Lab, isn't a manifesto for sacrifice—it's a blueprint for shared prosperity within the limits of a finite Earth.
The report emerges as a direct rebuttal to the fatalism that dominates much of today's political conversation. Right-wing technocrats and billionaires argue that the future belongs to fossil fuels, widening inequality, and ecological breakdown. Many environmentalists counter with degrowth—the idea that we must shrink our way to sustainability. The World Inequality Lab's 45 authors, drawing on research from over 200 scholars worldwide, propose something different: an equal and habitable world is possible, and it doesn't require mass impoverishment.
The centrepiece is radical yet practical. Cut working hours from 2,100 per year to 1,000—roughly a two-and-a-half-day week. Redirect investment from material-intensive sectors like manufacturing and mining toward education and healthcare, doubling spending in both. Eat less red meat, the primary driver of deforestation. These shifts, the report argues, would shrink humanity's material footprint while improving quality of life. As Piketty explains, one euro of GDP in education or health carries three to four times less environmental burden than one euro in manufacturing.
The wealth redistribution is stark but necessary. Billionaires, who represent just 0.001% of humanity, currently hold 6% of global wealth despite being most responsible for the climate crisis. Under this plan, their share would plummet to 0.05%, while the bottom 50% would see their portion rise from 2% to 30%. By 2100, average monthly income worldwide would reach €5,000—a vast improvement for the global south, where the gains would be greatest.
None of this works without climate action. The report projects that redirecting capital toward wind, solar, and renewable technologies, combined with shorter working weeks and dietary shifts, would limit warming to 1.8°C by century's end. That's far below the catastrophic 4°C to 4.5°C scenario under business-as-usual, and better than the 1.9°C degrowth could theoretically achieve. The math is unsparing: only by addressing inequality and emissions together can we avoid disastrous outcomes.
The report represents the most comprehensive attempt yet to untangle what it calls the polycrisis—the interlocking pressures of climate breakdown, political extremism, and economic tension. It sidesteps the pitfalls of mainstream approaches: the UN's climate science without social impact studies, traditional left-wing materialism, and the questionable efficacy of degrowth. Instead, it weaves together inequality research, climate science, and proposals for reforming the global financial architecture.
Whether this vision becomes reality depends on political will. Piketty doesn't mince words: the alternatives—a world shaped by Trumpism and billionaire ideology—will fail. Humanity will eventually choose cooperation and resource redistribution, he argues, because the alternative leads only to environmental and social catastrophe. The question is whether we'll choose it willingly, through democratic reform, or have it forced upon us by collapse. The World Inequality Lab has just handed the world a roadmap. Now comes the harder part: deciding to follow it.