Spatio-Temporal Impact of Global Migration on Carbon Transfers Based on Complex Network and Stepwise Regression Analysis
Considering the advancement of economic globalization, the reasons for migration together with the lifestyles of migrants will change the use of energy, environment of origin and destination. This study therefore explores the patterns of global trade-induced carbon emission transfers using “center-of-gravity” and complex network analysis. We further investigate the determinants of carbon transfers by integrating the impact of population migration through the STIRPAT framework for 64 countries over the period 2005–2015 using the stepwise regression approach. Our results unveil that higher levels of migration flow induce higher carbon flow. Specifically, every 1% increase in migration, triggers carbon transfers to increase within the range of 0.118%−0.124%. The rising impact of migration cannot be ignored, even though the coefficients were not so high. Besides, for both male and female migrants, their impact on carbon transfers generated by the intermediate products were higher than those generated by the final products. However, the influence is more obvious in male migrants. With the aim of dividing the sample of countries into three income groups, the results generally show that the impacts of migration vary across levels of income. Therefore, the environmental pressure caused by immigration should be considered by destination countries in the formulating of migration policies. On the other hand, origin countries should take some responsibility for carbon emissions according to their development characteristics.