The rise of South–South trade and its effect on global CO2 emissions

Jing Meng, Zhifu Mi, Dabo Guan (), Jiashuo Li, Shu Tao, Yuan Li, Kuishuang Feng, Junfeng Liu (), Zhu Liu, Xuejun Wang, Qiang Zhang and Steven J. Davis ()
Additional contact information
Jing Meng: University of Cambridge
Dabo Guan: University of East Anglia
Jiashuo Li: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Shu Tao: Peking University
Yuan Li: University of East Anglia
Kuishuang Feng: University of Maryland
Junfeng Liu: Peking University
Zhu Liu: Tsinghua University
Xuejun Wang: Peking University
Qiang Zhang: Tsinghua University
Steven J. Davis: University of California

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Economic globalization and concomitant growth in international trade since the late 1990s have profoundly reorganized global production activities and related CO2 emissions. Here we show trade among developing nations (i.e., South–South trade) has more than doubled between 2004 and 2011, which reflects a new phase of globalization. Some production activities are relocating from China and India to other developing countries, particularly raw materials and intermediate goods production in energy-intensive sectors. In turn, the growth of CO2 emissions embodied in Chinese exports has slowed or reversed, while the emissions embodied in exports from less-developed regions such as Vietnam and Bangladesh have surged. Although China’s emissions may be peaking, ever more complex supply chains are distributing energy-intensive industries and their CO2 emissions throughout the global South. This trend may seriously undermine international efforts to reduce global emissions that increasingly rely on rallying voluntary contributions of more, smaller, and less-developed nations.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (71)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04337-y Abstract (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:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-04337-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04337-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().