Just Economics

An inspiring case for how we still can protect the poor from climate change and reduce future emissions.

Renowned economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo (corecipients of the 2019 Nobel Prize), and Michael Greenstone propose a radical new approach to combatting the most serious global crisis of our time: climate change. The lives of the world’s poorest are already harder, hotter, and shorter thanks to emissions that disproportionately come from the world’s richest. But just as the rich world’s emissions are finally falling, poorer countries’ are set to increase drastically.

We seem to be caught in an impossible bind—but it’s not too late. Substantial progress is possible if the wealthiest countries compensate the poorer countries for the harms that their emissions cause and, in exchange, poorer countries commit to climate action. Based on meticulous original research and years of fieldwork around the world, this paradigm-shifting and inspiring book reassures us that we can successfully confront the challenge. We can protect the poor while protecting our future. It’s just economics.