Attributing climate-change-related disaster displacement responsibilities along global production chains

Abstract

Summary: Climate change creates hostile living conditions in various regions, provoking climate-driven migration. The literature points to a polarization between the countries responsible for climate change and the regions suffering its consequences. Given this dichotomy, this study analyses the link between unsustainable consumption by world powers and the increasing vulnerability of some developing countries. We identify the most vulnerable countries to climate migrations and perform a responsibility assessment on environmental migration through historical consumption-based contributions to climate change. The main results show that the areas most vulnerable to climate migration are low-income countries from Asia and Africa, whereas the US, China, Japan, and Russia are the major economies responsible for climate change driving those migrations. 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.

Keywords

• Applied sciences
• Engineering
• Social sciences