about

My work focuses on global inequality and ecological transitions.

I am a tenured Associate Professor of Economics at Sciences Po, based at the Center for Research on Social Inequalities and affiliated with the Department of Economics. I am also Co-Director of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics.

Books
Energy and inequality: A political history
Éditions du Seuil, 2025

Book published in French on 3 October 2025 (Publishing house: Le Seuil). English translation forthcoming.

More information.

Unsustainable Inequalities: Social Justice and the Environment
Harvard University Press, 2020

Selection of best books in economics – Financial Times

Selection of best science books – Nature

“An original perspective on the two greatest challenges of our times” – Martin Wolf, Financial Times

More info.

Climate Inequality Report 2023

Lucas Chancel, Philipp. Bothe, Tancrèe Voituriez. Climate Inequality Report 2023.  World Inequality Lab.

Download the report.

Synthesis of recent studies on global climate inequalities and proposal to finance climate investments in the global South. Report written b Key findings covered by the Financial Times, the Guardian, Time, Le Monde, El Pais…

 

Research articles
 
The carbon perception gap in actual and ideal carbon footprints across wealth groups [New]
Avec Johanna Köchling, Julia Koller, Jana Straßheim, Yannic Rehm, Claudia Diehl, Harald Schupp, Britta Renner, Nature Communications, (16) 2025.
 
Climate Change and the Global Distribution of Wealth
With Cornelia Mohren, Philipp Bothe, Gregor Semieniuk, Nature Climate Change, 2025.
 
Towards Tax Justice and Wealth Redistribution in India: Proposals Based on Latest Inequality Estimates
With Nitin Bharti, Thomas Piketty, Anmol Somanchi. Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 59 (21):91-96, 2024.
 
Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj
With Nitin Bharti, Thomas Piketty et Anmol Somanchi. World Inequality Lab Working Paper 2024/09.
 
Accounting for the Carbon Footprint of Capital Ownership Advances the Understanding of Emission Inequality
Lucas Chancel and Yannic Rehm, Climatic Change, 2025.
 
The Potential of Wealth Taxation to Address the Triple Climate Inequality Crisis
Chancel, L., Bothe P., Voituriez, T., Nature Climate Change, 2023
Conferences
May 2025
Public Lecture at the Swedish Royal Academy of Science

Public lecture “Inequality and the Biosphere” organized by the Beijer Institute, at the  Swedish Royal Academy of Science. More info.

PSE - April 2025
Taxing Billionaires Conference

A conference hosted by the Paris School of Economics focusing on the latest findings in top wealth taxation.

 

10/2024
Seoul Stepping Stone Income Conference and Yonsei University

Conference in Seoul in the context of the “Seoul Stepping Stone Income  Conference” and at Yonsei University.

Replay

 

Medias
Interview in Le Monde

On the occasion of the publication of my new book “Energie et inégalités : Une histoire politique”. Read the interview (in French): PDF.

What Strategy for Progressives in the Age of Trumpism? – Op Ed in Le Monde

Click here.

United Auto Workers strike – Op Ed in Le Monde

Link to the Op Ed (English translation)