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Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management
António Mendes Lopes (editor), Jiazhong Zhang(editor)
António Mendes Lopes (editor)

University of Porto, Portugal

Email: aml@fe.up.pt

Jiazhong Zhang (editor)

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province 710049, China

Fax: +86 29 82668723 Email: jzzhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn


Measurement of Embodied CO2Emissions and Decomposition of Influencing Factors in Foreign Trade: A Case Study of China

Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management 2(3) (2014) 257--265 | DOI:10.5890/JEAM.2014.09.005

Sanmang Wu$^{1}$; Shantong Li$^{2}$

$^{1}$ School of Humanities and Economic Management, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China;

$^{2}$ Development Research Center of State Council, Beijing 100010, China

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Abstract

In this study, we measured the embodied CO2emission and analyzed the flow direction of embodied CO2 in China’s foreign trade among the trade partners using a multi-national input-output model based on noncompetitive input-output tables, national input-output tables developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and CO2 emission strength listed in the Global Trade Analysis Program (GTAP) version 7.0 for the years 2002, 2005, and 2010. Using a structural decomposition method, we analyzed the changes in the embodied CO2emissions in China’s foreign trade were caused bythe three factors:export scale and structural changes, intermediate structural changes in the input-output table, and CO2emissions per unit of output. According to our results, from 2002 to 2010, China’s foreign trade created a huge trade surplus and a large embodied CO 2 deficit. In 2010, the CO2surplus reached 1.012 billion t. The rapid growth of trade scale was the main factor in the increase of embodied CO2in China’s export trade, and the technique effect brought about by the decrease in CO2emission strength is a significant factor in restraining the increase of embodied CO2in export trade.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant nos. 71003066 and 71133003.

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