The GEAR members Ángela García-Alaminos, María Ángeles Tobarra, and María Ángeles Cadarso have recently published the paper “Drivers of the Carbon Footprint Impact Resulting from the Reconfiguration of Global Value Chains» in the most recent issue of the Spanish journal Cuadernos Económicos de ICE, entitled “International trade and global value chains in a new global context. The article is a result of the European Commission under Horizon Europe project TWIN SEEDS (Towards a World Integrated and Socio-economically Balanced European Economic Development Scenario), grant number 101056793 (https://doi. org/10.3030/101056793) and has also received funding from the University of Castilla-La Mancha and the EU Regional Development Fund trough the project SOS-ESOCAM (ref. 2022-GRIN-34177).

This study aims to assess whether the evolution of the global value chains (GVCs) in which the Spanish economy is embedded has contributed to emission reduction goals or not. To this end, we analyze the evolution of Spain’s carbon emissions from multiple perspectives between 1995 and 2018, and evaluate their determinants through a structural decomposition analysis using an extended multi-regional input-output model. We pay particular attention to the impact of GVC reconfiguration, which has shifted from greater fragmentation and offshoring of production to a slowdown in globalization and even reshoring of activities. Our results show that the geographical factor of these GVCs has contributed to increasing emissions throughout the entire period, while other factors (emission intensity, demand level and pattern) have helped reduce them since 2008.

You can find the full text here: https://doi.org/10.32796/cice.2025.109.7925

The GEAR members María Ángeles Tobarra, Luis A. López, Ángela García-Alaminos and María Ángeles Cadarso have recently published the paper entitled “Identifying critical EU carbon emissions risk through global value chains” in Structural Change and Economic Dynamics. The article is a result of the European Commission under Horizon Europe project TWIN SEEDS (Towards a World Integrated and Socio-economically Balanced European Economic Development Scenario), grant number 101056793 (https://doi. org/10.3030/101056793).

This study examines the distribution of carbon emissions across global value chains (GVCs) and identifies the sectors within the EU that are most vulnerable to carbon-related risks. Using environmentally extended input-output analysis, the authors map both upstream and downstream carbon “hotspots” and introduce a novel Climate-Reshoring Index (CRI) to assess sectoral vulnerability to carbon dependency and trade disruptions.

Key findings reveal that the sectors emitting and consuming carbon-intensive goods are not the same. For example, Electricity & gas and Basic metals (especially from China and Russia) are major upstream emission sources, while Russian refined petroleum products dominate downstream imported emissions. Sectors like Chemicals and Metals show over 50% of their carbon footprint as imported. The most at-risk sectors, according to the CRI, include Computer, electronic and optical equipment, Pharmaceuticals, and Electrical equipment—all critical to the EU’s strategic autonomy. The study emphasizes the need for EU policies to account for sector-specific carbon exposure to enhance both climate goals and economic resilience

You can find the full text here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X25000876?via%3Dihub

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