Carbon emission spillover and feedback effects in China based on a multiregional input-output model

Abstract

The interregional emission spillover and feedback effects arising from interregional trade are playing more and more important roles in regional emission growth and interregional carbon transfer. It is necessary to measure these effects at regional and sectoral level considering that carbon emissions are closely related to economic development, especially in a vast developing country like China. Based on the three-region model of spillover and feedback effects proposed by Round, an improved multiregional method was proposed to analyze the emission spillover and feedback effects among the eight regions of China. The intraregional effects were revealed to be larger than the spillover effects, and the spillover effects were larger than the feedback effects on the emissions of each region. The proportions of emission spillover effects caused by other regions in the northwestern region, the southwestern region and the northeastern region ranked the top. Each one of the eastern coastal region, the northern coastal region and the southern coastal region caused a large number of emissions in other regions via spillover effects. Moreover, the closer regions were geographically, the stronger spillover effects showed among them. The emission feedback effects are mainly caused the regions themselves. At the regional sectoral level, the production and distribution of electricity and heavy industry released large amounts of emissions caused by spillover and feedback effects. The three coastal regions caused more than half of emission spillover effects in the northwestern region, the central region and the southwestern region in the production and distribution of electricity, heat, gas and water.