Abstract
ABSTRACT Policy to reduce the European Union’s (EU) carbon footprint needs to be grounded in an understanding of the structure and drivers of both the domestic and internationally traded components. Here we analyse consumption-based emission accounts (for the main greenhouse gases (GHGs)) for the EU, focusing on understanding sectoral contributions and what changes have been observed over the last two decades, including the role of trade. The EU28 has reduced its overall GHG footprint by 8% over the two decades, mainly due to the use of more efficient technology, both at home and abroad. Emissions embodied in imports, which make up one-third of the EU28 GHG footprint, grew strongly until 2008 but have stabilized in volume since. Foreign production has been more emissions intensive than if goods were produced in the EU. However, the overall contribution of this effect is small, offset by much larger (global) technological improvements and growths in consumption. Hence the focus should now be on accounting and responsibility for enacting change, not the global impact of trade. Finally, the inclusion of non-CO2 GHGs in the analysis shows their importance in the traded element, particularly for the mining and agricultural sectors. Key policy insights The total EU carbon footprint has reduced since 2007, but at a slower rate than production-based emissions, and rarely faster than GDP growth. Consumption growth has had a much greater impact on the EU carbon footprint than the offshoring of production. Trade in both directions (imports and exports) is important for the manufacturing sector. The data does not support claims of wholesale ‘de-industrialisation’ but rather reflects increased trade intensity related to specialization. Several (but not all) of the major sources of net embodied imports are largely unavoidable consequences of European consumption because the primary production activities (e.g. mining and significant shares of agricultural) could not realistically occur within the EU.
Highlights
Consumption-based carbon accounting (CBCA) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been suggested as a complement to traditional territorial emissions inventories in order to capture the global impact on the climate of the affluent lifestyles of highly developed countries (Kokoni & Skea, 2014; Peters & Hertwich, 2008; Steininger, Lininger, Meyer, Muñoz, & Schinko, 2015)
We focus on the trends in emissions, including the different perspective that CBCA gives to traditional measures, the role of trade and consumption in driving changes in the CBCA of the European Union (EU), and what sectors and product groups are responsible for the highest volume of emissions embodied in trade and consumption
We use the terms: ‘production-based’ carbon accounting (PBCA), which refers to the GHG emissions produced by residents of the European Union (EU28); and ‘consumption-based’ carbon accounting (CBCA), which refers to the GHG emissions allocated to the region where goods and services are consumed, and includes both private household, collective and government consumption, as well as capital formation
Summary
Consumption-based carbon accounting (CBCA) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been suggested as a complement to traditional territorial emissions inventories in order to capture the global impact on the climate of the affluent lifestyles of highly developed countries (Kokoni & Skea, 2014; Peters & Hertwich, 2008; Steininger, Lininger, Meyer, Muñoz, & Schinko, 2015). A second focus of CBCA is to address the concern that domestic emissions reductions in many highly developed countries may have only occurred due to a shift of consumption patterns towards products that are largely imported (e.g. IT) or due to a shift of production towards foreign sites with better resource access (e.g. steel, aluminum) and/or weaker emission mitigation strategies. CBCA seeks to capture the issue of relocation in addition to reduction of emissions (Droege, 2011). The displacement of emissions has been an increasing concern since the early 1990s, as the share of industrial activities in GDP of many of the OECD countries declined, and the Asian economies emerged (Peters, Minx, Weber, & Edenhofer, 2011)
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