Provincial carbon footprints and interprovincial transfer of embodied CO2 emissions in China

This study applied the interprovincial input–output model to calculate the carbon footprint of 30 provinces and the interprovincial transfer of embodied CO2 emissions in China. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the carbon footprints and the per capita carbon footprints of these provinces. The provinces with large carbon footprints are the economically developed provinces, while those with high per capita carbon footprints are the provinces that include central cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and the areas with abundant resources and heavy industry bases. The spatial transfer of embodied CO2 emissions in China occurs as follows: from economically developed provinces to provinces with rich resources and intensive heavy industries, from southern provinces to northern provinces, and from coastal provinces to inland provinces. To meet the demand of the coastal, southern, and economically developed provinces, the inland, northern provinces have assumed responsibility for most CO2 emissions. Thus, the domain decomposition of the responsibility for the reduction of CO2 emissions in China must take into account the spatial transfer of embodied CO2 emissions. The responsibility of producers and consumers should be integrated when establishing the indexes for the reduction of CO2 emissions in the various provinces of China. To design a comprehensive burden-sharing scheme for CO2 emissions, especially with respect to the carbon tax, the consumer principle needs to be considered; coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong and southern economically developed provinces are obliged to assume greater responsibility for the reduction of CO2 emissions.