Black carbon (BC) plays a vital role in Arctic warming.Extensiveinvestigations have been conducted to elucidate the source-receptorrelationships of BC between the Arctic and mid-/high-latitude sources.However, it is unclear to what extent source relocation under globalizationcould disturb Arctic BC contamination and climate forcing from anthropogenicBC emissions. Here, we show that the global supply chain (GSC) relocationfeatured by the southward shift of industries from high-latitude developedcountries to low-latitude developing countries markedly reduces theBC burden in the Arctic using a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem)and a multiregional input-output analysis (MRIO). We find thatArctic annual mean BC concentration associated with the GSC relocationdrops by similar to 15% from the case without the GSC relocation. Thetotal net BC level declines 7% over the entire Arctic and 16% in theEuropean Arctic. We also observed markedly declining BC depositionas well as direct and snow albedo radiative forcing in the Arctic.We show that the Arctic BC burden would be further reduced by decreasingBC emissions in China, attributable to its emission reduction andongoing shift of the GSC from China to southern and southeastern Asia. The global supply chain relocation fromhigh-latitude Europeto low mid-latitude Asian countries markedly reduces black carbonburden and snow albedo radiative forcing in the Arctic.

Environmental changes in response to global warming would conversely deplete the efficacy of our actions combating climate change, cultivating extra cost. Among them, the declining snow cover due to global warming would diminish its contribution to climate regulation, and further exacerbate global warming. This leads to a part of global carbon mitigation efforts acting virtually to neutralize the impact of snow cover reduction. It would have been otherwise saved to contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement. In this respect, here we evaluate the economic impacts of snow cover reduction in the Northern Hemisphere in terms of the mitigation that virtually counteracts the loss of climate regulation pertinent to the snow cover reduction trend, to demonstrate the magnitude of the cascading costs of climate change. As different carbon mitigation approaches would lead to different economic impacts, we follow the general principles of the Paris Agreement and establish two responsibility-sharing scenarios. The results reveal the non-negligible global costs considering not only the impact incurred by the nations implementing carbon mitigation but also, in the context of globalization, the cascading effect magnified in the global supply chain. We also identify critical nations, sectors, and international trade pairs that would confront the most costs. The results urge hotspot nations and trade partners to actively participate in the enhanced global efforts through the Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emissions. This can not only mitigate its direct global warming effect, but also abate the impacts of collateral environmental deterioration, such as snow cover reduction, eventually for their own benefits. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.