Green trade assessment for sustainable development of Chinese ferrous metal industry

Abstract

China has been the world’s largest ferrous metals producer for decades. Since China’s ferrous metal industry is resource- and pollution-intensive, the increasing export of ferrous metals leaves a large amount of domestic environmental damage. This paper aims to provide implications for the sustainable green trade of China’s ferrous metals in the 21st century by assessing the Green Trade index, in which the potential embodied environmental damages/costs are considered. The combination of material accounts and value accounts was adopted to obtain policy implications from both amount control and cost reduction. The results showed that: 1) China’s ferrous metal industry achieved overall green trade from 2001 to 2015, with signs of deviation from green trade after 2011; 2) the expansion of export trading and the increase in environmental damage were the main reasons for the deterioration of green trade in China’s ferrous metal industry after 2011; 3) based on the material assessment, 98% of the environmental damage embodied in imports of this industry comes from iron ore consumption and waste-water emission, while 99% of that embodied in exports comes from coal consumption, wastewater, and CO2 emissions; and 4) according to the value assessment, 80% of the environmental damage cost embodied in the imports of this industry comes from iron ore, wastewater, and waste solid, while 90% of that embodied in exports comes from coal, waste-water, waste gas, and CO2 emissions. Based on the above results, policy implications were provided for the sustainable development of Chinese ferrous metal industry.