Tracing the CO2 emissions embodied in Chinese mainland's exports with multinational enterprises: From source to sink

Abstract

The production technologies and carbon intensity of multinational enterprises (MNEs) is significantly different from those of domestic enterprises (DEs). However, there are few studies have paid attention to the enterprise ownerships in tracing the carbon emissions embodied in export (CEEE). This paper constructs a new decomposition framework of total export that considering the MNEs. Based on the OECD AMNE input-output table that distinguishing DEs and MNEs from 2005 to 2016 and the related carbon emissions data, it traces the carbon emissions embodied in Chinese mainland's exports based on the value-added trade. It separates Chinese mainland's domestic carbon emissions export (DCEE) that distinguishing enterprise ownerships, analyzes its changes, and further analyzes the differences of the DCEE between DEs and MNEs from the perspective of industrial distribution and export destinations. The results show that: (1) In addition to 2016, every year more than 10.0% of Chinese mainland's carbon emissions are used to meet the demand of foreign countries or regions, and the MNEs located in Chinese mainland has produced about 6.8%–11.1% of the DCEE. (2) About two-thirds of Chinese mainland's DCEE is produced by Chinese mainland's DEs through intermediate products export, and it is mainly concentrated in the basic metals industry, other non-metallic mineral products industry and chemicals and pharmaceutical products industry. (3) In terms of the DCEE through intermediate products export, the industrial distributions of the DEs and the MNEs are similar, and they both mainly concentrate in the three industries mentioned earlier; While for the final products export, it has much difference that labor-intensive processing trade is mainly produced by the DEs. (4) In terms of the main export destination regions of the DCEE, the DEs and MNEs are very similar both for the intermediate products export and the final products export. And ROW and USA are the biggest export destinations, followed by JPN, KOR, IND, GBR, DEU, etc. The research results of this article have important research significance for promoting the achievement of China's dual carbon goals.