Abstract
Environmentally extended input-output analysis (EEIOA) has long been used to quantify global and regional environmental impacts and to clarify emission transfers. Structural path analysis (SPA), a technique based on EEIOA, is especially useful for measuring significant flows in this environmental-economic system. This paper constructs an imports-adjusted single-region input-output (SRIO) model considering only domestic final use elements, and it uses the SPA technique to highlight crucial routes along the production chain in both final use and sectoral perspectives. The results indicate that future mitigation policies on household consumption should change direct energy use structures in rural areas, cut unreasonable demand for power and chemical products, and focus on urban areas due to their consistently higher magnitudes than rural areas in the structural routes. Impacts originating from government spending should be tackled by managing onsite energy use in 3 major service sectors and promoting cleaner fuels and energy-saving techniques in the transport sector. Policies on investment should concentrate on sectoral interrelationships along the production chain by setting up standards to regulate upstream industries, especially for the services, construction and equipment manufacturing sectors, which have high demand pulling effects. Apart from the similar methods above, mitigating policies in exports should also consider improving embodied technology and quality in manufactured products to achieve sustainable development. Additionally, detailed sectoral results in the coal extraction industry highlight the onsite energy use management in large domestic companies, emphasize energy structure rearrangement, and indicate resources and energy safety issues. Conclusions based on the construction and public administration sectors reveal that future mitigation in secondary and tertiary industries should be combined with upstream emission intensive industries in a systematic viewpoint to achieve sustainable development. Overall, SPA is a useful tool in empirical studies, and it can be used to analyze national environmental impacts and guide future mitigation policies.
Highlights
According to recent studies, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased from approximately 277 parts per million in 1750 [1] to 392.52 ppm in 2012 [2], and the average concentration exceeds 400 ppm for the first time in May 2013 [3]
There is no doubt that an multi-region input-output (MRIO) model is more appropriate than an single-region input-output (SRIO) model for estimating the actual carbon emissions embodied in trade because differences in environmental intensities and production chain structures in various nations are built into one model [38,39]
Except for the transport sector, all top 10 sectors come from power generation or heavy industries
Summary
The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased from approximately 277 parts per million (ppm) in 1750 [1] to 392.52 ppm in 2012 [2], and the average concentration exceeds 400 ppm for the first time in May 2013 [3] Most of this growth since the industrial era can be ascribed to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and cement production. The magnitudes of CO2 emissions in developed countries have far surpassed those in developing countries since 1750, but in recent years, this trend has reversed [5] All of these phenomena are highly correlated with the unprecedented expansion (more than 50%) of global energy demand since 1990, and in particular correlated with the rapid demand growth in non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (non-OECD) countries since 2000 when China alone accounts for more than half of the increase [6]. This work focuses on CO2 emissions from fossil fuels in China and tries to derive sound national and sectoral policies for future mitigation
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