The World Inequality Lab has just released a report that rewrites an old story—the one that says we must choose between prosperity and a liveable planet. The Global Justice Report, published Thursday, presents instead a radically different future: one where higher living standards, shorter working weeks and climate stability become allies rather than adversaries.
For decades, climate debates have felt like forced choices. Either humanity continues consuming and emitting until the planet destabilizes, or it accepts austerity and hardship. The World Inequality Lab rejects this false binary entirely. Their ambitious model shows that by 2100, the vast majority of people could actually live better lives while keeping global heating below 2 degrees Celsius—but only if the world is willing to confront extreme inequality.
The heart of the proposal is deceptively simple: people do not need endless material consumption to thrive. Instead, the report calls for "sufficiency"—shorter working hours, better health and education, cleaner energy, changed diets and a much narrower gap between the very rich and everyone else. Under the central scenario, average monthly income would converge toward about €5,000 per person in every country by 2100. That would mean far faster growth in poorer regions and much slower growth in today's wealthiest economies, but crucially, most people in rich countries would still benefit because income would be distributed more evenly and people would have far more time outside paid work.
Nearly 90 percent of the world's population would see their monetary income double by century's end, according to the model. When you add in extra leisure time and the avoided damage from unchecked climate heating, the report argues that more than 99 percent of people would be better off.
Perhaps most striking is the proposal to radically reduce working time. Annual labour hours per employed person would fall from about 2,100 today to around 1,000 by 2100, continuing a historical trend visible since the 19th century. But this isn't simply about working less—it's about redirecting human effort toward care, education, health, culture and other lower-carbon sectors of the economy. The report explicitly links this shift to gender equality, envisioning women and men converging on equal pay and equal shares of both paid and domestic labour.
Decarbonization remains essential, the authors emphasize. Energy systems must shift rapidly from fossil fuels, with electricity from low-carbon sources by mid-century and major investment in renewables and cleaner industrial processes. But technology alone won't solve it. Without changes in consumption, land use and inequality, the energy transition becomes politically and financially unsustainable.
To fund this transformation, the report proposes a Global Justice Fund financed by a wealth tax and top income tax on the richest 1 percent. This fund would support climate investment, health, education and dividends particularly for poorer countries. The report also calls for new forms of international currency, a world sovereign fund and rebalanced voting power in institutions like the IMF and World Bank. The Global Justice Fund would spend an average of 10.3 percent of world GDP annually between 2026 and 2060—a staggering commitment, but one the authors argue reflects the scale of the challenge, as climate investment alone is expected to require 3–4 percent of world GDP each year in coming decades.