Shared responsibility for carbon emission reduction in worldwide “steel- electric vehicle” trade within a sustainable industrial chain perspective

Yanxin Liu, Huajiao Li, Huijun Ren, Hongdian Jiang, Bo Ren, Ning Ma, Zhensong Chen, Weiqiong Zhong and Sergio Ulgiati

Ecological Economics, 2025, vol. 227, issue C

Abstract: Electric vehicles (EVs) is an important industry to promote global sustainability, but it consumes a lot of steel which produce more carbon dioxide during the production. To clarify the shared responsibility of carbon reduction related to EVs in the countries, it is necessary to assess the material flows of steel associated to the industry chain. This study constructed a multi-layer trade network model of “steel-electric vehicle” industry chain and identified key trade carbon transfer paths. The results firstly show the worldwide trade volume and the number of involved countries increased enormously from 2017 to 2021. Secondly, the non-renewable energies (coal) were diverted more from upstream countries. Finally, the trade patterns mostly flow from upstream (Brazil, Australia) to midstream steel producers (China, Germany), and then to downstream EVs manufacturers (USA), from which trade flows go back to middle and upstream countries. Instead, trade embodied carbon flows mainly into downstream developed countries. It reflects the huge imbalance among production process of different stages, energy consumed structure and trade carbon emissions in the worldwide “steel-electric vehicle” industry chain. Based on the results, this study proposes policy implications for promoting regional industrial ecological sustainability from the perspectives of industry chain, trading partners and countries.

Keywords: Steel- electric vehicle; Industry chain; Trade carbon emission; Multi-layer network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924002908
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:ecolec:v:227:y:2025:i:c:s0921800924002908

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108393

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().