Abstract
The structural transition to a service economy has clearly contributed to decreasing direct (or territorial) greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, the role of this structural transition on direct greenhouse gas emissions is not well understood quantitatively. This study applied the additive decomposition method and decomposed the change in CO2 emissions from domestic industries into five components: changes in the overall scale of the economy, changes in the industrial composition of the various economic sectors, energy intensity changes, changes in import composition, and changes in the import scale. The decomposition results show that during the 15-year period from 1990 to 2005, structural change effects under the domestic technology assumption (which include industrial composition effects, import scale effects, and import composition effects) totaled −35 Mt CO2, or 3 % of total CO2 emissions in 1990. It is concluded that the CO2 reduction due to the transition to a service economy was not negligible during 1990–2005 and that the structural transition to a service economy was much more important than the material dependence of service industries. JEL Classification: O14, O44, Q56.
Highlights
Increased environmental loads can be understood as arising from a variety of economic factors
Between 1990 and 1995, the change in CO2 emissions was +64 Mt CO2; from the figure, we see that this number breaks down into −2 Mt CO2 arising from technical effects, +8 Mt CO2 arising from industrial composition effects, and +58 Mt CO2 arising from economic scale effects
This study found that the CO2 reduction due to the transition of a service economy was 35 Mt CO2.4 This reveals that the structural transition to a service economy was much more important than the material dependence of service industries
Summary
Increased environmental loads can be understood as arising from a variety of economic factors. In the present study, I apply the Shapley–Sun additive decomposition method (Shapley 1953; Sun 1998) and decompose the change in production-based CO2 emissions from domestic industries into five components: that due to changes in the overall scale of the economy, that due to changes in the industrial composition of the various economic sectors, that due to energy intensity (i.e., technical) changes, which measures CO2 emissions per unit of domestic production, that due to changes in the import composition of the various commodities, and that due to changes in the import scale Using this index decomposition method, I will analyze the impact of Japan’s transition to a service economy on Japanese CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2005, and argue the environmental benefits of its structural transition. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Sect. 2 presents the decomposition method, Sect. 3 describes the data source, Sect. 4 presents a case study of Japan, and Sect. 5 concludes the paper
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
