Analysis of embodied carbon emissions and carbon sequestration in Tibetan Plateau-Case study of Tibet and Qinghai

Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau is one of the most important carbon sinks, while it is facing with huge pressure of carbon emission in the process of urbanization, and the inter-regional trade activities lead to the carbon emission structure to be more complex. To facilitate the realization of carbon neutrality, it is required to figure out the carbon sequestration capacity and the carbon emissions caused by socio-economic activities of the Tibetan Plateau. This study adopted the net primary productivity (NPP) remote estimation model to evaluate carbon sequestration capacity and utilized a multi-regional input–output analysis framework combined with a structural decomposition analysis model for embodied carbon emission evaluation of Tibet and Qinghai to identify the carbon emission characteristics in 2012 and 2017. The results reflect that Tibet had great potential for carbon neutrality, but Qinghai had a slight carbon deficit from both the production and consumption perspectives. The carbon emission flow patterns shown that Tibet was basically a net emission importer, and Qinghai mainly imported net emissions from northern China like Inner Mongolia, Henan, and Hebei, and exported emissions to southern China like Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. The energy production and supply industries were the largest carbon emission sources and the major contributors of emission growth for Tibet and Qinghai. The gross capital formation have induced about 75% of the consumption-based emissions in plateau in both 2012 and 2017. The increased emissions were mainly driven by changes in average consumption structure, which promoted the emissions increased by 34.70% and 23.21% for Tibet and Qinghai, respectively. It can be concluded that the main task to achieve the target of carbon reduction is to change the energy structure of the Tibetan Plateau into a cleaner structure to reduce dependence on high-carbon products from other provinces and promote green development all over the country.