Análisis sectorial de la huella de carbono para la economía chilena: un enfoque basado en la matriz insumo-producto

This study develops and applies a method to calculate sectorial carbon footprint based on the input-output matrix. This method captures in a better way the net emissions attributable to each sector considering sectoral interlinks. This method is applied for the first time to the Chilean economy. We compare the results using this method with those obtained using the conventional methodologies based only on the direct sectoral fuel uses. This comparison shows that the results are dramatically different. It shows that certain sectors which using the conventional approach appear to be quite mild in terms of emissions, are much dirtier (e.g., the mining industry) while other sectors traditionally considered high emitters revealed to be much less dirty (e.g., electricity and gas). These differences entail large implications for carbon reducing policies as the carbon tax burden would have to be quite different depending on the methodology used to estimate sectoral emission footprints. Based on this methodology we analyze the effectiveness of carbon taxes to reduce the CO2 emissions and compared with an alternative regulatory framework that induces a “cleaner” composition of the energy matrix. An international comparison puts Chile as a relatively clean economy but with a trend showing an increase in the emissions per unit of output, mainly due to the use of carbon intensive fuels.