Could a new global panel defuse inequality’s ‘ticking time bomb’?
UN leaders and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz propose an independent panel to study global inequality, modeled after the IPCC, aiming to guide policy responses to widening disparities.
A new proposal to create an International Panel on Inequality, modeled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, gained momentum during a UN event on 23 September in New York. The initiative, backed by Brazil, Norway, South Africa, and Spain, seeks to consolidate evidence on inequality’s causes and consequences to inform government action. UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed highlighted the panel’s potential to provide science-based insights for policymakers facing escalating disparities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the richest 10 per cent of the global population now owns 75 per cent of all wealth, underscoring the urgency of addressing inequality. He cautioned that unchecked disparities could destabilize democratic institutions and exacerbate power imbalances between nations, describing inequality as a ‘ticking time bomb’ for global security and economic systems.
The proposed panel would analyze inequality’s scale and drivers, offering policy options such as fairer taxation, stronger social protections, and reforms to global financial architecture. Gender equality and equitable access to frontier technologies like artificial intelligence would be central to its work. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, chairing the founding committee, emphasized the need for a multilateral approach to treat inequality as a global threat requiring rigorous scientific analysis.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley endorsed the initiative, framing it as essential to fulfilling the UN’s promises to citizens worldwide. She expressed confidence that the proposal would lead to a groundbreaking General Assembly resolution, positioning inequality as a fundamental issue for the international community to address collectively.