China's balance of emissions embodied in trade: approaches to measurement and allocating international responsibility

Oxford Review of Economic Policy - Tập 24 Số 2 - Trang 354-376 - 2008
Jiahua Pan1, Jonathan Phillips2, Yang Chen3
1Research Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, e-mail:
2School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, e-mail:
3Research Centre for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, e-mail:

Tóm tắt

Abstract International trade is characterized not only by the flow of capital and goods, but also by the energy and emissions embodied in goods during their production. This paper investigates the evolving role that Chinese trade is playing in the response to climate change by estimating the scale of emissions embodied in China's current trade pattern and demonstrating the magnitude of the difference between the emissions it produces (some of which are incurred to meet the consumption demands of the rest of the world) and the emissions embodied in the goods it consumes. Estimating China's emissions on a consumption rather than a production basis both lowers its responsibility for carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2006 from 5,500 to 3,840mtCO2 and reduces the growth rate of emissions from an average of 12.5 per cent p.a. to 8.7 per cent p.a. between 2001 and 2006. The analysis indicates that a reliable consumption-based accounting methodology is feasible and could improve our understanding of which actors and states are responsible for emissions. For example, recent emissions reductions by developed countries may lack credibility if production has merely been displaced to countries such as China. Moreover, in the current institutional context, production methodologies encourage leakages through trade that may do more to displace than to reduce emissions. Both equity and efficiency concerns therefore suggest that emissions embodied in trade should receive special attention in the distribution of post-Kyoto abatement burdens.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Ahmad, 2003, Carbon Dioxide Emissions Embodied in International Trade of Goods

Ashton, 2003, Equity and Climate: In Principle and Practice

Brock, 2004, The Green Solow Model, 10.3386/w10557

Chung, 2005, Balance of CO2 Emissions Embodied in International Trade: Can Korean Carbon Tax on its Imported Fossil Fuels Make Any Difference in BEET?

Copeland, 1994, North–South Trade and the Environment, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 10.2307/2118421

Copeland, 2003, Trade, Growth and the Environment, 10.3386/w9823

Deal, 2008, WTO Rules and Procedures and their implication for the Kyoto Protocol

Garnaut, 2008, Emissions in the Platinum Age: The Implications of Rapid Development for Climate-change Mitigation, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 24, 377, 10.1093/oxrep/grn021

Grether, 2006, Unravelling the World-wide Pollution Haven Effect

Hayami, 2002, CO2 Emissions of an Alternative Technology and Bilateral Trade between Japan and Canada: Relocating Production and an Implication for Joint Implementation

Helm, 2007, Too Good to be True? The UK's Climate Change Record

IEA, 2006, World Energy Outlook 2006

IEA, 2007, World Energy Outlook: China and India Insights

Lenzen, 1998, Primary Energy and Greenhouse Gas Embodied in Australian Final Consumption: An Input–Output Analysis, Energy Policy, 26, 495, 10.1016/S0301-4215(98)00012-3

Li, 2007, Evaluating the Effects of Embodied Energy in International Trade on Ecological Footprint in China, Ecological Economics, 62, 136, 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.06.007

Limmeechokchai, 2007, Embedded Energy and Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Final Consumptions within Thailand, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 11, 259, 10.1016/j.rser.2005.01.005

Machado, 2001, Energy and Carbon Embodied in the International Trade of Brazil: An Input–Output Approach, Ecological Economics, 39, 409, 10.1016/S0921-8009(01)00230-0

Mäenpää, 2007, Greenhouse Gases Embodied in the International Trade and Final Consumption of Finland: An Input–Output Analysis, Energy Policy, 35, 128, 10.1016/j.enpol.2005.10.006

Mongelli, 2006, Global Warming Agreements, International Trade and Energy/Carbon Embodiments: An Input–Output Approach to the Italian Case, Energy Policy, 34, 88, 10.1016/j.enpol.2004.06.004

Mukhopadhyay, 2004, Impact of Trade on Energy Use and Environment in India: An Input–Output Analysis

Muradian, 2002, Embodied Pollution in Trade: Estimating the “Environmental Load Displacement” of Industrialized Countries, Ecological Economics, 41, 51, 10.1016/S0921-8009(01)00281-6

NBS, 2006, Input–Output Tables of China in 2002

NBS (various years), The China Yearbook of Statistics

Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2007, China Now No. 1 in CO2 Emissions; USA in Second Position

Nguyen, 2006, Analysis of Changing Hidden Energy Flow in Vietnam, Energy Policy, 34

Pan, 2008, Carbon Budget for Basic Needs Satisfaction and its Implications for International Equity and Sustainability, World Economics and Politics, 1, 35

Peters, 2008, Post-Kyoto Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Production versus Consumption, Climatic Change, 86, 51, 10.1007/s10584-007-9280-1

Rosen, 2007, China Energy: A Guide for the Perplexed, International Institute for Economics

Sánchez-Chóliz, 2004, CO2 Emissions Embodied in International Trade: Evidence for Spain, Energy Policy, 32, 1999, 10.1016/S0301-4215(03)00199-X

Shui, 2006, The Role of CO2 Embodiment in US–China Trade, Energy Policy, 34, 4063, 10.1016/j.enpol.2005.09.010

Straumann, 2003, Exporting Pollution? Calculating the Embodied Emissions in Trade for Norway, Statistics Norway

UN, UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database

Wan, 2006, China's Energy Efficiency Policy in Industry’, paper presented at the ‘Working Together to Respond to Climate Change

Wang, 2007, Who Owns China's Carbon Emissions?, Tyndall Centre Briefing Note

Ward, 2005, Implications for Climate Change Policy of Trends in Exports and Imports of Energy Commodities and Manufactured Goods, Global Climate Change Consultancy

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Oxford Review of Economic Policy

Tập 24 Số 2

354-376

Thông tin tác giả