The GEAR members Guadalupe Arce, Ángela García-Alaminos, Mateo Ortiz and Jorge Zafrilla have recently published the paper entitled “Attributing climate-change-related disaster displacement responsibilities along global production chains” in iScience.

This paper analyses the link between unsustainable consumption by world powers and the increasing vulnerability of some developing countries. Its main aim is to propose a fair method for attributing responsibility regarding climate migration. To do so, this paper explores the historical responsibility of nations for climate change based on a consumption perspective rather than a production criterion, given the role that globalization and trade dynamics have played in both the climate crisis and the vulnerability of the Global South.

The assessment of historical emissions under the consumption criterion reveals that the responsibility for the negative consequences of climate change must be concentrated in a short list of countries. The top 15 countries whose demand has generated the greatest share of historical emissions account for 74.01% of the total, most of them developed and high-income countries that have led the globalization process. This responsibility attribution contrasts with the assessment of vulnerability to climate migration, which points to developing economies in the Global South (such as Bangladesh, Haiti, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Myanmar, Mozambique, Niger, Sudan, and Somalia, selected as the top 10 most vulnerable counties) as those whose populations are more likely to suffer the consequences of climate change.

According to our estimations, top responsible countries should contribute 0.2%–0.5% of their GDP to a global financial fund for climate migrants. This work supports the principle of climate justice regarding worldwide current challenges.

You can find the full-text here:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.111124

The GEAR members Marina Sánchez-Serrano, Jorge Zafrilla, Mateo Ortiz and Guadalupe Arce have recently published in Regional Science Policy & Practice the paper entitled “Carbon taxation and related vulnerability of Spanish urban and rural households in a regional level”.

Consumer choices  are critical to reducing CO2 emissions from human activities. Climate policies aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of consumers often have a negative impact on low-income families and rural households with limited access to low-carbon consumption choices.

In this paper, we estimate households’ carbon footprint in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) by urban-rural location and expenditure attributes and simulate the impacts of a carbon tax on the disposable income of different types of households.

A multiregional input-output model is proposed to assign global carbon footprints to products. This model will help us identify the main driving goods in each type of household’s carbon footprint and evaluate the household’s vulnerability after carbon taxation.

Our findings suggest that high-spending households would face the taxation strongest effects on car fuels and transport services, as they would have an impact of 2% of their total expenditure by the taxation on these products, while this effect in lower-income households would be 0,75%. A tax on basic housing services (electricity and heating) would have a regressive impact, undermining the consumption level of vulnerable households. They would be affected by 2,5%, while higher income households would spend between 1 and 1,5% of their total expenditure on paying the carbon tax on this product.

This heterogeneity across households leads us to recommend taxes and compensation mechanisms charged on adequate products to reduce households’ carbon footprints while avoiding the regressivity of climate policies and reducing urban-rural inequalities.

You can find the full text here:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1757780224003342

New GEAR’s multidisciplinary collaboration is available now in the Chemical Engineering Journal:

The paper, entitled “Sustainable Farms from a Biogenic Co2 Source: The CO₂-MPS Strategy”, has been developed by A. Gueddari, Á. García-Alaminos, C. Alonso, J. Canales-Vázquez and S. García-Yuste.

This paper proposes a novel strategy to increase pig farmhouses’ sustainability.

Swine farming faces unprecedented challenges in meeting the growing demand to feed an increasing population. To do so, these farms contribute significantly to producing approximately 35 % of the world’s NH₃ emissions, a highly harmful air pollutant. In response to this critical environmental issue, the CO₂ Management Pig Slurry Strategy (CO₂-MPS) proposes an innovative solution to mitigate NH₃ emissions by leveraging the biogenic CO₂ produced within pig farmhouses. This groundbreaking Carbon Dioxide Utilization (CDU) approach based on utilizing this biogenic CO₂ to form a protective blanket over pig manure lagoons promises the reduction of over 8 million metric tons of NH₃ emissions annually. Such NH₃ emissions are well-documented initiators of Particulate Matter, particularly PM2.5, highlighting the potential positive impact on air quality of this strategy. In addition, implementing the CO₂-MPS strategy would lead to the generation of environmentally friendly fertilizers.

The GEAR members Guadalupe Arce and Ángela García-Alaminos, together with Sara Fernández, Ignacio Cazcarro and Iñaki Arto have recently published the paper entitled “Climate change as a veiled driver of migration in Bangladesh and Ghana” in Science of The Total Environment.

This paper analyses climate drivers of migration in the deltas of Bangladesh and Ghana. People living in deltaic areas in developing countries are especially prone to suffer the effects from natural disasters due to their geographical and economic structure. Climate change is contributing to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme events affecting the environmental conditions of deltas, threatening the socioeconomic development of people and, eventually, triggering migration as an adaptation strategy.

This study is based on data from migration surveys and econometric techniques from the DECCMA Project to analyse the extent to which environmental impacts affect individual migration decision-making in two delta regions in Bangladesh and Ghana.

The results show that, in both deltas, climatic shocks that negatively affect economic security are significant drivers of migration, although the surveyed households do not identify environmental pressures as the root cause of the displacement. Furthermore, environmental impacts affecting food security and crop and livestock production are also significant as events inducing people to migrate, but only in Ghana.

The study also finds that suffering from environmental stress can intensify or reduce the effects of socioeconomic drivers. In this sense, adverse climatic shocks may not only have a direct impact on migration but may also condition migration decisions indirectly through the occupation, the education, or the marital status of the person.

Although climate change and related environmental pressures are not perceived as key drivers of migration, they affect migration decisions through indirect channels (e.g., reducing economic security or reinforcing the effect of socioeconomic drivers).

You can find the full-text here: 

Pilar Osorio, María Ángeles Tobarra, and Manuel Tomás have recently published in the Journal of Ecological Economics the paper entitled «Are there gender differences in household carbon footprints? Evidence from Spain».

In this paper, the carbon footprints of Spanish households are calculated using an environmentally extended multiregional input-output model combined with microdata from the Spanish Household Budget Survey.

Results show that households with a majority of men have a higher carbon footprint and carbon intensity.

Female households spend more (and generate more emissions) on housing supplies and food products, while male households show that pattern for restaurants and transport .

Access the paper here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924000272?via%3Dihub