Recontextualizing Telecouplings in Electricity-Driven Land Use Flows via Global Supply Chains

Xiao Li, Chaohui Li, Muhammad Yasin Gill, Mengyao Han (), Yihong Liu, Ying Fan, Zhi Li and Guoqian Chen
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Xiao Li: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Chaohui Li: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Muhammad Yasin Gill: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Mengyao Han: Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Yihong Liu: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Ying Fan: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Zhi Li: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Guoqian Chen: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: The global energy transition is expected to require three to twenty times more land areas than fossil fuel-based power generation, making the availability of suitable land for the global energy transition a key challenge. Based on different types of energy resources, this study designs a telecoupling multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model to analyze cross-border electricity-driven embodied land appropriation patterns. The results show that the land footprint associated with renewable energy is substantially lower than that associated with conventional power generation. However, the growth rate of this footprint is 2.18 times higher than that of conventional electricity generation. China and Germany are identified as key export markets for wind- and solar- driven embodied land. The share of electricity-driven embodied land from China to the United States, Japan, and Germany declined, whereas the embodied land flowing to countries including South Korea, India, and Singapore increased. Embodied land-exporting nations face trilemma issues related to environmental degradation chain reactions, resource consumption threshold lines, and social distribution tensions, which may significantly affect decarbonization progresses. By integrating renewable power infrastructures and land use occupation, this analytical framework is expected to advance the understanding of energy–land nexus dynamics, providing theoretical foundations for cross-system governance in the implementation of carbon neutrality.

Keywords: multi-regional input-output analysis; embodied land; international trade; electricity-driven; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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