Estimating the complete CO2 emissions and the carbon intensity in India: From the carbon transfer perspective

Abstract

With the impacts of climate change causing widespread concerns, many scholars had discussed carbon leakage in the international trade, which ignored carbon transfer within domestic sectors. Departing from them, this paper took into account energy-related CO2 emissions embodied in intermediate production processes. We used the SRIO model to calculate and analyze the carbon footprint of economic sectors in India during the period of 1995–2009, and also investigated the changes in the carbon emission intensity of each sector. The results showed that, from the production perspective, the most famous "high carbon" sector was EGW (electricity, gas and water supply), and this sector accounted for 60% of the CO2 emissions of the secondary industry. From the consumption perspective, this ratio was only maintained at between 10%–16%. In contrast, traditional "low carbon" sector, CON (construction) emitted the largest CO2 to other sectors. In addition, more than 90% of the sectors showed a decreasing trend of carbon emission intensity. The conclusions of this paper have important policy implications for the correct allocation of CO2 emission responsibility, establishment of fair and effective emission reduction policies and the transformation of low carbon economy in India.