Impacts of inter-sectoral trade on carbon emissions—a case of China in 2007

doi:10.1007/s11783-012-0396-9

Front Envir Sci Eng

0, Vol.

Issue () : 387-402 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-012-0396-9

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Impacts of inter-sectoral trade on carbon emissions—a case of China in 2007

Xiuqi FANG¹, Benyong WEI²(

), Yuan WANG³

1. School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; 2. Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China; 3. School of Environment Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

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Abstract

With the increase in international trade, more attention has been given to quantifying the impacts of international trade on energy use and carbon emissions. Input-output analysis is a suitable tool for assessing resources or pollutants embodied in trade and it has become a critical tool for performing such analysis. This study estimated the national and sectoral carbon emissions embodied in Chinese international trade using the latest available China input-output table of 2007. The results showed that a significant exporting behavior of embodied carbon emissions existed in China’s trade. Over 1/3 of the emissions in Chinese domestic production processes were generated for exports in 2007. The net balance of emissions embodied in exports and imports accounted for nearly 30% of China’s domestic emissions, which means that any policy made to increase the exports would result in a significant growth of China’s domestic emissions. Since over half of China’s export trade is processing trade, the re-exported emissions could not be overlooked; otherwise, it would hard to capture the actual emissions generated abroad to obtain China’s domestic consumption. The enlargement of export scale is a primary driven factor to the rapid growth of China’s exported emissions. It is necessary for China to adjust its economic and industrial structure to reduce the dependence of economic growth on the export trade. However, when adjusting industry structures or making policies on carbon emission reduction, it will be more reasonable to consider the relationship between production and consumption, rather than just focus on the emission values of sectors’ direct production, as a large part of carbon emissions emitted by the principal direct polluters were generated to obtain the products which were required by other sectors.

Keywords international trade carbon emissions input-output analysis China

Corresponding Author(s): WEI Benyong,Email:bywei1982@163.com

Issue Date: 01 June 2012

Cite this article:

Xiuqi FANG,Benyong WEI,Yuan WANG. Impacts of inter-sectoral trade on carbon emissions—a case of China in 2007[J]. Front Envir Sci Eng, 0, (): 387-402.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-012-0396-9
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y0/V/I/387

Tab.1 The basic structure of input-output table

Fig.1 Emissions in China’s domestic consumption and exports in 2007 (Mtce)

Fig.2 Domestic emissions and imported emissions of China in 2007 (Mtce)

sectors	direct emissions	domestic emissions	total emissions	total imported emissions	actual imported emissions	re-exported emissions	total exported emissions	domestic exported emissions	BEET	CdFd	CdCt/%	CmzCtm/%	CzCm
BoldItalic^d/Mtce	BoldItalic^d/Mtce	BoldItalic^t/Mtce	BoldItalic^tm/Mtce	BoldItalic^m/Mtce	BoldItalic^mz/Mtce	BoldItalic^tz/Mtce	BoldItalic^z/Mtce	BoldItalic^b/Mtce
agriculture	31.13	52.65	54.69	2.04	1.64	0.40	2.56	2.16	0.52	1.69	96.27	19.50	1.32
mining and washing of coal	89.78	3.58	4.44	0.86	0.58	0.29	4.18	3.89	3.32	0.04	80.54	33.32	6.76
extraction of petroleum and natural gas	19.25	0.90	13.58	12.68	8.16	4.52	5.93	1.41	-6.75	0.05	6.61	35.63	0.17
mining and processing of metal ores	2.52	2.19	14.03	11.83	6.89	4.94	5.82	0.88	-6.01	0.87	15.64	41.73	0.13
mining and processing of non-mental ores	3.78	1.13	1.83	0.70	0.54	0.17	1.48	1.31	0.77	0.30	61.56	23.90	2.44
foods, beverages, tobacco	17.41	83.53	85.26	1.73	1.51	0.22	7.97	7.75	6.24	4.80	97.97	12.80	5.14
textile	13.77	50.03	51.41	1.38	0.61	0.77	52.18	51.41	50.80	3.63	97.31	55.72	83.98
textile wearing apparel, leather, feather and related products	2.30	57.71	58.51	0.80	0.64	0.16	27.68	27.52	26.88	25.07	98.64	19.82	43.04
processing of timber and furniture	2.37	22.96	23.40	0.44	0.33	0.11	14.65	14.54	14.21	9.67	98.13	24.67	44.07
paper, printing and articles for culture, education	19.32	18.64	20.32	1.68	1.17	0.51	17.46	16.95	15.79	0.96	91.75	30.41	14.54
processing of petroleum, coking and nuclear fuel	395.42	16.48	26.54	10.06	6.85	3.21	22.94	19.72	12.88	0.04	62.11	31.93	2.88
chemical industry	131.93	104.78	132.98	28.20	17.86	10.34	93.37	83.03	65.17	0.79	78.79	36.66	4.65
non-metallic mineral products	102.52	17.64	19.08	1.44	1.25	0.19	21.19	21.00	19.75	0.17	92.44	13.06	16.75
smelting and pressing of metals	329.78	60.66	79.37	18.70	12.00	6.70	89.35	82.65	70.65	0.18	76.44	35.84	6.89
metal products	2.96	46.55	48.23	1.67	1.15	0.52	38.26	37.74	36.59	15.74	96.53	31.21	32.77
general and special purpose machinery	10.79	149.41	164.66	15.25	12.25	3.00	49.01	46.01	33.76	13.85	90.74	19.69	3.76
transport equipment	6.31	107.43	112.82	5.39	4.58	0.81	22.64	21.82	17.24	17.03	95.22	15.06	4.77
electrical machinery and communication electronic equipment	3.57	232.72	266.01	33.29	20.58	12.71	188.94	176.23	155.65	65.17	87.48	38.18	8.56
measuring instruments and machinery for cultural activity and office work	0.26	18.41	23.86	5.45	4.01	1.43	18.05	16.62	12.61	70.33	77.17	26.30	4.14
other manufacturing	2.68	16.98	18.98	2.00	1.40	0.60	6.70	6.10	4.70	6.33	89.46	30.21	4.37
production and distribution of electric power and heat power	716.25	48.88	49.08	0.20	0.14	0.06	2.75	2.68	2.55	0.07	99.59	31.60	19.60
production and distribution of gas	8.78	5.40	5.40	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.61	100.00	0.00	0.00
production and distribution of water	0.22	3.10	3.10	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	14.16	100.00	0.00	0.00
construction	8.79	547.57	548.11	0.54	0.54	0.00	3.69	3.69	3.15	62.32	99.90	0.46	6.88
transport	108.62	85.16	88.24	3.08	2.39	0.69	42.30	41.61	39.22	0.78	96.51	22.38	17.43
retail and restaurants	14.55	71.75	72.24	0.49	0.40	0.08	16.49	16.41	16.00	4.93	99.32	17.16	40.53
other services	21.22	240.05	243.88	3.83	3.40	0.43	15.59	15.15	11.76	11.31	98.43	11.26	4.46
total	2066.30	2066.30	2230.04	163.74	110.87	52.87	771.18	718.31	607.44

Tab.2 Embodied carbon emissions of China in 2007

sectors	direct emissions	domestic emissions	total emissions	total imported emissions	actual imported emissions	emissions imported and later exported	total exported emissions	domestic exported emissions	BEET
BoldItalic^d	BoldItalic^d	BoldItalic^t	BoldItalic^tm	BoldItalic^m	BoldItalic^mz	BoldItalic^tz	BoldItalic^z	BoldItalic^b
agriculture	1.51	2.55	2.45	1.25	1.48	0.75	0.33	0.30	0.09
mining and washing of coal	4.35	0.17	0.20	0.53	0.52	0.54	0.54	0.54	0.55
extraction of petroleum and natural gas	0.93	0.04	0.61	7.75	7.36	8.55	0.77	0.20	-1.11
mining and processing of metal ores	0.12	0.11	0.63	7.23	6.22	9.34	0.75	0.12	-0.99
mining and processing of non-mental ores	0.18	0.05	0.08	0.43	0.48	0.32	0.19	0.18	0.13
foods, beverages, tobacco	0.84	4.04	3.82	1.06	1.36	0.42	1.03	1.08	1.03
textile	0.67	2.42	2.31	0.84	0.55	1.46	6.77	7.16	8.36
textile wearing apparel, leather, feather and related products	0.11	2.79	2.62	0.49	0.58	0.30	3.59	3.83	4.43
processing of timber and furniture	0.11	1.11	1.05	0.27	0.30	0.20	1.90	2.02	2.34
paper, printing and articles for culture, education	0.94	0.90	0.91	1.02	1.05	0.96	2.26	2.36	2.60
processing of petroleum, coking and nuclear fuel	19.14	0.80	1.19	6.14	6.18	6.07	2.97	2.75	2.12
chemical industry	6.38	5.07	5.96	17.22	16.11	19.55	12.11	11.56	10.73
non-metallic mineral products	4.96	0.85	0.86	0.88	1.13	0.36	2.75	2.92	3.25
smelting and pressing of metals	15.96	2.94	3.56	11.42	10.82	12.68	11.59	11.51	11.63
metal products	0.14	2.25	2.16	1.02	1.04	0.99	4.96	5.25	6.02
general and special purpose machinery	0.52	7.23	7.38	9.31	11.05	5.68	6.35	6.40	5.56
transport equipment	0.31	5.20	5.06	3.29	4.13	1.54	2.94	3.04	2.84
electrical machinery and communication electronic equipment	0.17	11.26	11.93	20.33	18.57	24.04	24.50	24.53	25.62
measuring instruments and machinery for cultural activity and office work	0.01	0.89	1.07	3.33	3.62	2.71	2.34	2.31	2.08
other manufacturing	0.13	0.82	0.85	1.22	1.26	1.14	0.87	0.85	0.77
production and distribution of electric power and heat power	34.66	2.37	2.20	0.12	0.12	0.12	0.36	0.37	0.42
production and distribution of gas	0.43	0.26	0.24	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
production and distribution of water	0.01	0.15	0.14	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
construction	0.43	26.50	24.58	0.33	0.48	0.00	0.48	0.51	0.52
transport	5.26	4.12	3.96	1.88	2.15	1.30	5.48	5.79	6.46
retail and restaurants	0.70	3.47	3.24	0.30	0.37	0.16	2.14	2.28	2.63
other services	1.03	11.62	10.94	2.34	3.06	0.82	2.02	2.11	1.94

Tab.3 Sectoral percentages of each component/%

Fig.3 The estimations of domestic exported emissions (a) and net exported emissions (b)

Tab.4 Relationship between contribution of exports to GDP and share of exported emissions in domestic emissions

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