Climate change justice goes beyond authorship equity

Mehr Muhammad Adeel Riaz and colleagues commented on the poor global authorship equity in the 2022 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change.1Riaz MMA Wangari MC Mugambi JK No climate change justice in lieu of global authorship equity.Lancet. 2023; 4011074 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (0) Google Scholar This letter not only describes the inequity in reporting but also enlightens the need to dissect climate change in detail to truly understand cause and effect. The countries responsible for the highest carbon emissions are China, the USA, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.2Climate TradeClimate Change News. Which countries are the world's biggest carbon polluters?.https://climatetrade.com/which-countries-are-the-worlds-biggest-carbon-polluters/Date accessed: April 7, 2023Google Scholar The first five countries in the list, along with the EU, account for 70% of total global carbon emissions.3MIT Technology ReviewClimate Change. These three charts show who is most to blame for climate change.https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063443/responsible-climate-change-charts/Date accessed: April 7, 2023Google Scholar The countries that published the most scientific articles on climate change are the USA, the UK, China, Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Netherlands, Spain, and India.4Klingelhöfer D Müller R Braun M Brüggmann D Groneberg DA Climate change: does international research fulfill global demands and necessities?.Environ Sci Eur. 2020; 32: 137Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar One cannot help but notice the overlap between the two lists. None of the top ten countries most affected by climate change are on the list. These countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chad, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan;5Concern Worldwide10 of the countries most affected by climate change.https://www.concern.net/news/countries-most-affected-by-climate-changeDate accessed: April 7, 2023Google Scholar their contribution to the global emissions is miniscule yet they face the harshest consequences. Hence, there is more literature on cause and little on effects of climate change, with a sharp demographic contrast. It is the obligation of high-income countries to take the lead in building capacity and developing collaborations with low-income and low-middle income countries to produce a well-distributed cohort of literature. Similarly, countries responsible for high emissions need to be made accountable to support nations affected by the consequences of their emissions. Otherwise, climate change will remain a predator–prey relationship with some countries benefiting at the cost of others. We declare no competing interests.