Occupational carbon footprints and exposure to climate transition risks

Zengkai Zhang, Chuanzeng Zheng, Zhenyu Xiao and Kunfu Zhu ()
Additional contact information
Zengkai Zhang: Xiamen
Chuanzeng Zheng: Xiamen
Zhenyu Xiao: Renmin University of China
Kunfu Zhu: Renmin University of China

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Workers, especially those involved in occupations with high carbon footprints, are more susceptible to the growing risks associated with the climate transition as a result of the urgent need to transition to a low-carbon economy. Here we trace the occupational carbon footprints along global value chains and estimate the associated exposure to climate transition risks. The volume of occupational carbon footprints is trending upward globally, with the expansion of primary labour inputs as the main driving factor. There is a considerable deal of territorial and occupational variance in carbon footprints from the perspectives of both volume and per worker. The most vulnerable to climate transition risks are drivers, craft workers and machine operators, particularly those operating in emerging countries. The current study’s findings may help the understanding of the role that workers play in climate change and the formulation of more targeted policies to protect vulnerable workers.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61011-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-61011-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61011-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().