Study on the Transfer of Embodied Sulfur Dioxide Footprints in Inter-provincial Trade in China Based on Complex Networks

With the acceleration of China’s economic growth and the deepening of regional trade integration, inter-provincial trade has become a crucial component of the national economy. However, it has inadvertently posed environmental challenges, particularly in terms of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, which pose significant threats to air quality, ecosystems, and human health. Nevertheless, existing research lacks an in-depth analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of implied SO2 in China’s inter-provincial trade. Analyzing these characteristics can identify key provinces involved in SO2 emissions, providing a solid foundation for formulating energy-saving and emission-reduction policies at the provincial level. Therefore, in this study, we combine an environmentally extended multi-regional input-output model with complex network analysis to investigate the characteristics of implied SO2 footprint transfer within China’s inter-provincial trade networks. Our method quantifies the temporal variation of SO2 transfer paths between provinces. The research results indicate that the accessibility of China’s inter-provincial SO2 footprint transfer network has been improving annually. However, there is still room for enhancement in terms of the synergistic SO2 relationships among provinces. By implementing energy-saving and emission-reduction policies on key provinces with high SO2 emissions, the policy impact will efficiently propagate through the SO2 footprint transfer network to other provinces, thereby enhancing China’s overall energy-saving and emission-reduction efficiency.