A webinar exploring how sustainability and poverty reduction can be more easily achieved if considered together.
10:30 - 11:30
Date: 8 January 2024
Ending poverty and addressing climate change are the two defining issues of our time. Both are essential to achieving sustainable global development. The academic literature stresses that the range of the number of people falling into poverty due to climate change is likely to be between 32 million and 132 million in 2030 (e.g. Hallegatte et al, 2016; Jafino et al, 2020). Global poverty has also increased due to COVID-19. Health impacts (malaria, diarrhea, and stunting) and the effect of food prices are responsible for most of the impact. For example, the effect of food prices is the most important factor in Sub-Saharan Africa, while health effects, natural disasters, and food prices are all important in South Asia.
The bad news is that the pace of poverty reduction at $1.25 a day is bound to slow down significantly in the near future. Extreme poverty barely falls below 8% of the developing world population in the most optimistic scenario (Bluhm et al, 2016). The literature provides evidence that the average income elasticity is around minus two and the average inequality elasticity is about one and a half. Differences in income and inequality levels create strong regional heterogeneity in the estimated elasticities.
The lethal combination of climate change and poverty may be mitigated if growth can be achieved in combination with simultaneous reductions in inequality. Hence, the importance of institutions, trade and a host of other factors for poverty alleviation remains undiminished.
The aim of this presentation is to highlight the impact of climate change and changes in inequality on poverty, and their contribution to poverty reduction, and raise awareness of a double-edged problem, which affects our home (environment) and our neighbour (those in need). It aims to bring together these two objectives and to explore how they can be more easily achieved if considered together. It demonstrates the urgency of efforts to reduce poverty and the vulnerability of poor people in the face of climate change. It also provides guidance on how to ensure that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building.
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Professor George Iatridis is a professor of accounting and finance at the Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Greece. He is the director of the MSc in Accounting and Auditing. He has served as the Head of the Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Thessaly, Greece, and has taught at undergraduate, masters and executive programs in accounting.
George has taught at the London School of Economics, University of Manchester (UK), Koc University (Turkey), University of St Gallen (Switzerland), University of Athens (Greece), ICN Business School (Germany), University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication, Management Center Innsbruck-MCI (Austria), EDHEC Business School, Grenoble Graduate School of Business, IESEG School of Management, Université Paris Dauphine (France) and Maastricht School of Management (The Netherlands).
Professor Iatridis is an associate editor at the International Review of Financial Analysis (ABS 3, Elsevier) and at the Emerging Markets Review (ABS 2, Elsevier). He has published more than 50 research papers in international peer-reviewed academic journals. He has participated in the Greek Accounting and Auditing Oversight Board, and has acted as the Deputy Chairman of the Greek Auditing Practices Board.
Professor Iatridis studied Accounting and Finance at postgraduate level at the Universities of Manchester (PhD) and Southampton (MSc). Before graduate school, he studied Economics at the University of Athens, Greece.