Climate inequality: who actually bears the cost of breakdown

Nesrine Malik argues that climate breakdown exposes a stark inequality: wealthy nations can absorb catastrophic costs, poorer ones cannot. Nepal's recent floods killed over 750 people and displaced thousands. Meanwhile, European heatwaves prompted rapid government intervention – France deployed tax breaks and relocation support; the UK committed £100m to wildfire resilience before summer began. The same climate system affects everyone. The capacity to respond does not. This asymmetry matters for ESG frameworks and corporate climate commitments. Net-zero pledges and climate risk disclosure assume a functioning society capable of adaptation. They don't address the fundamental question: who pays when adaptation fails? Companies operating in climate-vulnerable regions face mounting stakeholder pressure to move beyond emissions accounting toward tangible adaptation investment and supply chain resilience. The real test of corporate climate action isn't whether a multinational cuts Scope 3 emissions – it's whether that commitment includes genuine risk mitigation for the communities where production happens, or whether it remains a first-world problem dressed in corporate language.

The Nepal floods seem a world away – but make no mistake, climate breakdown will affect us all | Nesrine Malik

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