An Analysis of the Responsibilities and Driving Factors for Embodied Carbon in Trade

Bin Zhang, Liping Li, Jia Zhao and Li Zhang
Additional contact information
Bin Zhang: Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, No. 1, Yuhui South Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, P. R. China
Liping Li: Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, No. 1, Yuhui South Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, P. R. China
Jia Zhao: Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, No. 1, Yuhui South Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, P. R. China
Li Zhang: Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, No. 1, Yuhui South Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, P. R. China

Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES), 2022, vol. 10, issue 02, 1-16

Abstract: By adopting the consumption-based accounting (CBA) method of carbon emissions based on national carbon intensity (NCI), using the International Trade Centre (ITC) database, the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), and the World Bank database, and taking 13 countries and regions including the European Union (EU) countries and the United States (US) as research samples, this paper conducts an accounting of the embodied carbon in trade between China and other major economies in the world, clarifies the responsibilities China has taken for foreign consumption-based carbon emissions, and analyzes the various driving factors of China’s embodied carbon in exports. The findings are as follows: (i) Most of the developed economies have higher consumption-based emissions than production-based emissions, which is contrary to most of the developing economies, with developing countries bearing responsibilities for 15–20% of the consumption-based carbon emissions for developed countries; (ii) the carbon emissions of countries and regions are closely related to the embodied carbon in trade, with a correlation coefficient of 0.96. (iii) China has taken responsibility for a large amount of carbon emissions from foreign consumer demand, most of which are from the US, the EU, ASEAN, and Japan, respectively accounting for 3.8%, 3.5%, 2.3%, and 1.2% of China’s production-based carbon emissions in 2019; (iv) technique effect is the main driving factor for China’s embodied carbon in trade, while the specific driving factors vary by industry. Based on the above analysis, it is suggested that China should: (i) consider the trade factor in its efforts to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality; (ii) adopt differentiated measures to reduce trade-related emissions for specific industries; (iii) fully consider China’s demand for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in international negotiations; (iv) give more support to the research on and measurement of consumption-based carbon emissions.

Keywords: Trade; embodied carbon; consumption-based responsibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2345748122500130
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:wsi:cjuesx:v:10:y:2022:i:02:n:s2345748122500130

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S2345748122500130

Access Statistics for this article

Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES) is currently edited by PAN Jiahua

More articles in Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().