Tendency of Embodied Carbon Change in the Export Trade of Chinese Manufacturing Industry from 2000 to 2015 and Its Driving Factors

Ji Guo, Lei Zhou and Xianhua Wu
Additional contact information
Ji Guo: School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China
Lei Zhou: School of Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Xianhua Wu: School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: The manufacturing industry is an important part of the national industrial system, and is usually an industry with high carbon content. However, few studies have been carried out on the total amount, structure and the trend of the embodied carbon emission in the international trade of the Chinese manufacturing industry. Based on the input–output method, the thesis proposes the coefficient of direct carbon emission and complete carbon emission and a method for calculating the embodied carbon of the export trade. It also calculates the coefficient of direct carbon emission and complete carbon emission for the Chinese manufacturing sector from 2000 to 2015 and breaks down the embodied carbon change of export trade in the manufacturing industry to a technological effect, structural effect and scale effect by using the method of structural decomposition. Several inspiring conclusions could be drawn from the thesis. For example: (1) the coefficient of both the direct carbon emission and the complete carbon emission has been decreasing significantly, indicating the achievements of the energy saving and emission reduction of the Chinese manufacturing industry. (2) The embodied carbon emission from the manufacturing exports remains high and presents a rising tendency. The main sectors that export the embodied carbon includes “S10 mechanical equipment and instruments”, “S9 metal products”, “S6 chemical industry”, etc., which should be the key sectors on reducing embodied carbon in exports. (3) The driving force of the embodied carbon exports lies in the scale effect of the manufacturing industry, on which the technical effect of the industry has a significant negative effect. The structural effect should have a positive influence that takes on a rising tendency; generally, this effect is only two-thirds of the scale effect. Finally, the corresponding policy suggestions have been made.

Keywords: import and export trade; embodied carbon; input–output method; structural decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1839/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1839/ (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:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1839-:d:150246

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().