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