Calculation and decomposition of China's embodied air pollutants in Sino-US trade

Abstract

This study calculates embodied SO2, NOx, and PM2.5 in Sino-US trade from 2005 to 2015, and investigates their driving and inhibitory factors through LMDI method. Results reveal that, embodied SO2, NOx, and PM2.5 in China's exports into the U.S. were much greater than these embodied air pollutants in imports from the U.S.; China's emission efficiency had a largest inhibitory effect, whose contributions from 2005 to 2015 to reductions in SO2, NOx, and PM2.5 were respectively by 266.18%, 491.95%, and 203.36%, followed by China's energy intensity, whose contributions were respectively by 112.99%, 265.22%, and 86.22%; whereas China's export dependence and export scale had positive effects on export embodied air pollutants. Air pollutants embodied in China's imports from the U.S. were mostly induced by the U.S. emission efficiency and China's import scale. At a sectoral level, the effects on cross-border air pollutant transfer were concentrated in the sectors such as manufactures, non-metallic mineral products, and metal products; promoting factors on air pollutant transfer from the U.S. to China for different sectors were China's export dependence and export scale, whereas inhibitory factors were China's emission efficiency and energy intensity. Some policy implications are put forward related to our empirical results.