Technology, climate change creating new inequalities, says U.N. report

A new generation of global inequalities fuelled by climate change and technology could trigger violence and political instability if left unchecked, the United Nations warned on Monday. Climate change and technology rather than wealth and income are the modern-day wedges that are increasingly dividing the haves from the have-nots, said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 2019 Human Development Report. These forms of inequality are rising as progress has been made in more traditional measures of inequality such as extreme poverty and disease, it said. "Under the shadow of the climate crisis and sweeping technological change, inequalities in human development are taking new forms," the report said. "The climate crisis is already hitting the poorest hardest, while technological advances such as machine learning and artificial intelligence can leave behind entire groups of people, even countries."