Character of China Embodied Carbon Emissions within the Trade

Abstract

Based on the year-to-year (import) non-competitive input-output tables, in this paper, we have calculated China’s embodied carbon emission by consumption and production based measures, and assessed the embodied carbon emissions in trade among China, United States (U.S.), Japan and European Union (EU). The results revealed that China’s embodied carbon emission from domestic production (QP) was higher than that from domestic consumption by 14.8-26.1% because of the balance of embodied emissions in trade (QB) during 1997-2010. China’s embodied carbon emission within export (QE) grew from 0.70Gt in 1997 to 1.85Gt in 2010, accounting for 21.6-36.8% of QP. QB grew from 0.54Gt in 1997 to 1.22Gt in 2010, accounting for 13.3-24.8% of QP. QB of China between U.S., Japan and EU increased from 0.28Gt in 1997 to 0.88Gt in 2010, accounting for 9.4-17.8% of QP. Around 50% of China’s embodied carbon emissions in export resulted from trade among China, U.S., Japan and EU.