As the planet continues to warm, people living in the world’s most vulnerable regions — like arid or low-lying nations — must contend with the decision to stay in a place where livability is decreasing or leave for countries with more stable climate and economic conditions.
New Princeton University research suggests that restrictive border policies could increase many people’s vulnerability to extreme climate conditions and weaken economic prosperity by limiting their ability to emigrate from countries that are facing worsening conditions due to climate change, such as drought, heat waves, and rising seas.
When allowed to move freely, however, both migrants and the developing countries from which they came are less vulnerable and better off financially, the researchers reported in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers built migration into a standard model typically employed by policymakers to estimate the social cost of carbon and other climate change effects, explained co-lead author Hélène M. Benveniste, a Ph.D. candidate at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA).
Read more at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Image: New Princeton University research suggests that restrictive border policies could increase many people's vulnerability to extreme climate conditions and weaken economic prosperity by limiting their ability to emigrate from countries that are facing worsening conditions due to climate change, such as drought, heat waves, and rising seas. (Credit: Egan Jimenez, Princeton University)