CO2 emissions from service sectors in Ecuador: an analysis using input–output subsystems

Edwin Buenaño1, Emilio Padilla2, Vicent Alcántara2
1School of Physical and Mathematics Sciences, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador
2Department of Applied Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

Tóm tắt

Abstract

Ecuador is one of the most megadiverse countries in the world and a pioneer in establishing some regulations to take care of its environment. Despite this, its levels of pollution and environmental deterioration are higher than those of neighboring countries. A better understanding of the pollution channels of a subsystem such as services, which increasingly occupies a more relevant place in the economy and many of its activities tend to go unnoticed as a source of pollution, allows the development of mitigation strategies that could be analyzed and adopted for similar contexts. We estimated direct and indirect emissions for the 71 economic activities of Ecuador and applied an input–output subsystem analysis, breaking down the generation of total CO2 emissions (direct and indirect) of the 18 activities that make up the services subsystem into 6 sources. Total emissions of the services subsystem were a third of the emissions for the year 2018. Although it is known that transport is a well-known relevant actor in overall CO2 emissions, our decomposition provides a clearer view of the direct and indirect pollution channels of other relevant service sectors. We detect several service sectors with an insignificant level of direct CO2 emissions and a high level of total emissions. This is the case of trade services, real estate services, services provided by professionals, telecommunications or the government public administration. These sectors induce the generation of emissions from other sectors inside and outside the services subsystem. The results inform the design of policies to mitigate CO2 emissions in Ecuador.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Alcántara V (1995) Economía y contaminación atmosférica: hacia un nuevo enfoque desde el análisis input-output. PhD thesis. Universidad de Barcelona

Alcántara V (2007) Análisis input-output y emisiones de CO2 en España: un primer análisis para la determinación de sectores clave en la emisión. Working Paper 07.02, Department of Applied Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Alcántara V, Padilla E (2009) Input–output subsystems and pollution: an application to the service sector and CO2 emissions in Spain. Ecol Econ 68(3):905–914

Alcántara V, Roca J (1995) Energy and CO2 emissions in Spain. Methodology of analysis and some results for 1980–90. Energy Econ 17:221–230

Arroyo F, Miguel LJ (2019) Analysis of energy demand scenarios in Ecuador: national government policy perspectives and global trend to reduce CO2 emissions. Int J Energy Econ Policy 9(2):364–374

Bass MS, Finer M, Jenkins CN, Kreft H, Cisneros-Heredia DF et al (2010) Global conservation significance of Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park. PLoS ONE 5(1):e8767

Buenaño E, Alcántara V, Padilla E (2021) Relevant sectors in CO2 emissions in Ecuador and implications for mitigation policies. Energy Policy 158:112551

Cevallos-Sierra J, Ramos-Martin J (2018) Spatial assessment of the potential of renewable energy: the case of Ecuador. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 81:1154–1165

Chavez-Rodriguez MF, Carvajal PE, Martinez Jaramillo JE, Egüez A, Mahecha REG, Schaeffer R, Szklo A, Lucena AFP, Arango Aramburo S (2018) Fuel saving strategies in the Andes: long-term impacts for Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Energ Strat Rev 20:35–48

Climate Analysis Indicators Tool – CAIT (2023) Per capita CO2 emissions by sector. Recovered from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/per-capita-co2-sector

Council of Europe (2023) Green public administration can help prevent climate change. https://www.coe.int/en/web/good-governance/-/green-public-administration-can-prevent-climate-change

Deprez J (1990) Vertical integration and the problem of fixed capital. J Postkeynesian Econ 13(1):47–64

Donald PF, Buchanan GM, Balmford A et al (2019) The prevalence, characteristics and effectiveness of Aichi Target 11′s “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs) in Key Biodiversity Areas. Conserv Lett 12:e12659

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean - CEPALSTAT (2023). Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by GDP. Recovered from https://statistics.cepal.org/portal/cepalstat/dashboard.html?theme=3&lang=es

Freitag C, Berners-Lee M, Widdicks K, Knowles B, Blair GS, Friday A (2021) The real climate and transformative impact of ICT: a critique of estimates, trends, and regulations. Patterns 2(9):100340

Gadrey J (2010) The environmental crisis and the economics of services: the need for Revolution. The Handbook of Innovation and Services. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham

García M (2014) El País de la Biodiversidad: Ecuador. Jardín Botánico de Quito: Ministerio del Ambiente: Eco Fondo

Ge J, Lei Y (2014) Carbon emissions from the service sector: an input-output application to Beijing, China. Clim Res 60(1):13–24

Hoskins D (2021) When it comes to cutting carbon emissions, the real estate industry is running out of time. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/27/perspectives/carbon-emissions-construction-buildings-real-estate/index.html

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2008) 2006 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories—a primer, Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, Eggleston HS, Miwa K, Srivastava N, Tanabe K (eds) IGES, Japan29

International Energy Agency (IEA) (2021) Energy balances of OECD-countries, documentation for beyond 2020 files. International Energy Agency, Paris

Jahanger A, Balsalobre-Lorente D, Samour A, Joof F, Ali M, Tursoy T (2022) Do renewable energy and the real estate market promote environmental quality in South Africa: evidence from the bootstrap ARDL approach. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416466

Lipinski R, Van Acker W, Praninskas Gy, Eltigani M (2021) Bureaucrats must take a bigger role in fighting climate change. WorldBank Blog. https://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/bureaucrats-must-take-bigger-role-fighting-climate-change

Llop M, Tol RSJ (2013) Decomposition of sectoral greenhouse gas emissions: a subsystem input-output model for the Republic of Ireland. J Environ Planning Manage 56(9):1316–1331

Mestanza C, Figueroa Saavedra H, Domínguez Gaibor I, Abarca Zaquinaula M, Lara Váscones R, Malla Pacheco O (2019) Conflict and impacts generated by the filming of discovery channel’s reality series “naked and afraid” in the amazon: a special case in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, Ecuador. Sustainability 11:50

Mestanza-Ramón C, Henkanaththegedara SM, Vásconez Duchicela P, Vargas Tierras Y, Sánchez Capa M, Constante Mejía D, Jimenez Gutierrez M, Charco Guamán M, Mestanza Ramón P (2020) In-situ and ex-situ biodiversity conservation in Ecuador: a review of policies. Act Challenges Divers 12:315

Meza MV (2002) Ecología y biodiversidad del Ecuador: Lubbock, TX, USA; ISBN 9978424032

Ministerio Coordinador de Sectores Estratégicos (MCSE) (2016) Agenda Nacional de Energía 2016–2040. http://biblioteca.olade.org/opac-tmpl/Documentos/cg00362.pdf

Ministerio Coordinador de Sectores Estratégicos (MCSE) (2018) Balance Energético Nacional. Quito, Ecuador

Ministerio de Electricidad y Energía Renovable (MEER) (2017) Plan Nacional de Eficiencia Energética. https://www.celec.gob.ec/hidronacion/images/stories/pdf/PLANEE%20version%20espa%C3%B1ol.pdf

Ministerio de Energía y Recursos Naturales no Renovables (MERNNR). (2018). Balance Energético Nacional 2018. Quito, Ecuador

Nansai K, Kagawa S, Suh S, Fujii M, Inaba R, Hashimoto S (2009) Material and energy dependence of services and its implications for climate change. Environ Sci Technol 43:4241–4246

Navarro F, Alcántara V (2010) Las emisiones de metano (CH4) en el subsistema agroalimentario catalán: un análisis input-output alternativo. Econ Agrar Recursos Nat 10(2):25–39

Navarro F (2012) Modelos multisectoriales input-output en el estudio de los impactos ambientales: Una aplicación a la economía de Cataluña, PhD thesis dissertation, PhD Program in Applied Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain

Pasinetti LL (1973) The notion of vertical integration in economic analysis. Metroeconomica 25(1):1–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-999X.1973.tb00539.x

Pasinetti LL (1988) Growing subsystems, vertically hyperintegrated sectors and the labour theory of value. Camb J Econ 12(1):125–134

Piaggio M, Alcántara V, Padilla E (2015) The materiality of the immaterial: service sectors and CO2 emissions in Uruguay. Ecol Econ 110:1–10

Qashou Y, Samour A, Abumunshar M (2022) Does the real estate market and renewable energy induce carbon dioxide emissions? Novel evidence from Turkey. Energies. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15030763

REN21 (2023) Renewables 2023 global status report. Renewables in Energy Demand

Sánchez-Chóliz J, Duarte R (2003) Analysing pollution by way of vertically integrated coefficients, with an application to the water sector in Aragon. Camb J Econ 27(3):433–448

Scarano FR, Fornero Aguiar AC, Mittermeier RA, Rylands AB (2021) Megadiversity. Reference module in life sciences. Elsevier, Amsterdam. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822562-2.00013-X

Scazzieri R (1990) Vertical integration in economic theory. J Post Keynesian Econ 13:20–46

Sraffa P (1960) Production of commodities by means of commodities: prelude to a critique of economic theory. Cambridge University Press, CUP Archive

Suh S (2006) Are services better for climate change? Environ Sci Technol 40(21):6555–6560

Wang J, Jiang Q, Dong X, Dong K (2021) Decoupling and decomposition analysis of investments and CO2 emissions in information and communication technology sector. Appl Energy 302:117618

West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum (2023) CFPT: Professional Services. Recovered from http://westcoastclimateforum.com/cfpt/professionalservices

World Economic Forum (2021) The net-zero challenge: the supply chain opportunity

Zhang L, Yang L, Chapman CA, Peres CA, Lee TM, Fan PF (2023) Growing disparity in global conservation research capacity and its impact on biodiversity conservation. One Earth. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.01.003

Zhen W, Li J (2021) The formation and transmission of upstream and downstream sectoral carbon emission responsibilities: evidence from China. Sustain Prod Consum 25:563–576

Zhou X, Zhou D, Wang Q, Su B (2019) How information and communication technology drives carbon emissions: a sector-level analysis for China. Energy Econ 81:380–392