A global, scope-based carbon footprint modeling for effective carbon reduction policies: Lessons from the Turkish manufacturing

Abstract

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resource Institute (WRI) set the scope-based carbon footprint accounting standards in which all possible supply-chain related indirect greenhouse gas emissions are captured. Although this carbon footprint accounting standards are widely used in regional policy making, there is little effort in analyzing the scope-based carbon footprints of nations using a multi-region input–output (MRIO) analysis in order to consider the role of global trade. This research aims to advance the body of knowledge on carbon footprint analysis of the manufacturing sectors with a holistic approach combining the WBCSD & WRI’s scope-based carbon footprint accounting standards with a time series MRIO framework. To achieve this goal, a global scope-based carbon footprint analysis of the Turkish manufacturing sectors has been conducted as a case study. We employed a time series MRIO analysis by using the World Input–Output Database on the world’s 40 largest economies covering 1440 economic sectors. The results showed that electricity, gas and water supply was the most dominant sector in the supply chains of the Turkish industrial sectors with the largest carbon footprint. On average, indirect emissions of the Turkish manufacturing industry are found to be higher than direct emissions during the period from 2000 to 2009. The results of this analysis revealed that supply chain related indirect emissions (represented by scope 3) are responsible for nearly 56.5% total carbon emissions of sectors, which highlights the crucial role of supply chains on overall carbon footprint of sectors.