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Emissions embodied in Chinese exports taking into account the special export structure of China

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  • Weitzel, Matthias
  • Tao, Ma

Abstract

Quantification of CO2 emissions embodied in China's trade is important for an informed debate on whom to blame for the recent rise in Chinese emissions or the calculation of border carbon adjustments. Applying input output techniques, we calculate these emissions in (1) a standard model, (2) a regionally disaggregated model, taking into account that export production is concentrated in more advanced and more emission efficient provinces and (3) in a model with export processing, taking into account that almost half of Chinese exports relies on a large share of imported intermediates and little domestic value and emissions added. We compare year 2007 emissions embodied for in Chinese exports in a unified framework. We also report emissions embodied in Chinese imports used for intermediate production of exports by combining calculations for China with data from global IO models. We find that both a model with 30 provinces (1730 Mt CO2) and a model accounting for export processing (1580 Mt) yield lower Chinese emissions embodied in exports compared to the standard model (1782 Mt). In the regional model, emissions are even lower (1522 Mt), if interprovincial trade is not taken into account.

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  • Weitzel, Matthias & Tao, Ma, 2013. "Emissions embodied in Chinese exports taking into account the special export structure of China," Kiel Working Papers 1885, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:1885
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    Cited by:

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    3. Yan, Bingqian & Duan, Yuwan & Wang, Shouyang, 2020. "China’s emissions embodied in exports: How regional and trade heterogeneity matter," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
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    7. Boya Zhang & Shukuan Bai & Yadong Ning & Tao Ding & Yan Zhang, 2020. "Emission Embodied in International Trade and Its Responsibility from the Perspective of Global Value Chain: Progress, Trends, and Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-26, April.
    8. Zhengyan Liu & Xianqiang Mao & Peng Song, 2017. "GHGs and air pollutants embodied in China’s international trade: Temporal and spatial index decomposition analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, April.
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    13. Jiang, Xuemei & Guan, Dabo & Zhang, Jin & Zhu, Kunfu & Green, Christopher, 2015. "Firm ownership, China's export related emissions, and the responsibility issue," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 466-474.
    14. Xianpu Xu & Bijiao Yi, 2022. "New Insights into the Impact of Local Corruption on China’s Regional Carbon Emissions Performance Based on the Spatial Spillover Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-26, November.
    15. Hu, Junmei & Liu, Gengyuan & Meng, Fanxin & Hu, Yuanchao & Casazza, Marco, 2020. "Subnational carbon flow pattern analysis using multi-scale input-output model," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 431(C).
    16. Zhang, Zhonghua & Zhao, Yuhuan & Su, Bin & Zhang, Yongfeng & Wang, Song & Liu, Ya & Li, Hao, 2017. "Embodied carbon in China’s foreign trade: An online SCI-E and SSCI based literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 492-510.
    17. Xia, Yan & Fan, Ying & Yang, Cuihong, 2015. "Assessing the impact of foreign content in China’s exports on the carbon outsourcing hypothesis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 296-307.
    18. Jiang, Xuemei & Duan, Yuwan & Green, Christopher, 2017. "Regional disparity in energy intensity of China and the role of industrial and export structure," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 209-218.
    19. Zhang, Youguo & Tang, Zhipeng, 2015. "Driving factors of carbon embodied in China's provincial exports," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 445-454.
    20. Lien-Chieh Lee & Yuan Wang & Yuanyuan Yan & Jian Zuo, 2018. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions Embodied in the Chinese International Trade of Computer Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    21. Duan, Yuwan & Yan, Bingqian, 2021. "Has processing trade made China's exports cleaner? A regional level analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    22. Liu, Hongguang & Liu, Weidong & Fan, Xiaomei & Zou, Wei, 2015. "Carbon emissions embodied in demand–supply chains in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 294-305.
    23. Xuemei Jiang & Quanrun Chen & Cuihong Yang, 2018. "A Comparison Of Producer, Consumer And Shared Responsibility Based On A New Inter-Country Input–Output Table Capturing Trade Heterogeneity," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(02), pages 295-311, March.
    24. Yuting Dang & Yating Song & Muhammad Mohiuddin & Dan Sheng, 2022. "Towards Cleaner Production Ecosystem: An Analysis of Embodied Industrial Pollution in International Trade of China’s Processing versus Normal Exports," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-21, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    emissions embodied in trade; China; input-output modelling; export processing; spatial disaggregation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C67 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Input-Output Models
    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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