Drivers of Environmental Change - Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6): Healthy Planet, Healthy People Chapter 2

The five drivers reviewed in this chapter — population growth and demographics, urbanization, economic development, new technological forces, and climate change — have led to an unprecedented expansion of wealth for many but have also left many behind and could produce trouble for the future. If current trends in inequality continue, the top 0.1 per cent of the population will own more wealth than the global middle class by 2050 (WID 2018)