Value-Added-Based Accounting of CO2 Emissions: A Multi-Regional Input-Output Approach

Hongguang Liu,Xiaomei Fan

doi:10.3390/su9122220

Abstract

In the era of globalization and international trade, the production-based CO2 emissions accounting system, proposed by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, can easily lead to a “carbon leakage” issue. Thus, the accounting of consumption-based carbon emissions and carbon emissions embodied in international trade has received considerable research attention. Nevertheless, researchers also indicated that the consumption-based principle has some weaknesses, for example, it leads the producers inert on reducing carbon emissions while gaining economic benefits. To share carbon emissions responsibilities between producers and consumers is widely recognized. So, setting an income-based emissions accounting method as to producer is a necessary complement for accounting national carbon emissions. This study promoted a model, called the value-added-based accounting of CO2 emissions method, to account for anthropogenic CO2 emissions within the context of the economic benefit principle. Based on the global multi-regional input-output table and national carbon emissions database, we calculated the national/regional carbon emissions based on the value-added accounting approach as well as the amount of global carbon emissions embodied in value-added chains. If the results are served as a supplement for calculating the amount of CO2 emissions reduction that a country is responsible for, problems such as carbon leakage and resistance to improving the energy efficiency of exporting sector may be solved, because all the supply chains emissions associated with the economic growth of a country would be considered.

Highlights

Substantial reductions in global emissions are needed to reduce the risk of “dangerous” anthropogenic climate change [1,2]
In the value-based perspective, China, USA, India, Russia and Japan were the Top 5 emitters, which all exceeded 1 billion tons of CO2, together accounting for 58.9% of the global gross emissions. This indicated that the economic growth of the above five countries were the main cause of the global CO2 emissions
The roughly similar sequences of countries by Production-Based Accounting System of CO2 Emissions (PBE) and value-added based accounting of CO2 emissions (VBEs) show that CO2 emissions caused by one country’s economic growth are mostly emitted within its own territory

Summary

Introduction

Substantial reductions in global emissions are needed to reduce the risk of “dangerous” anthropogenic climate change [1,2]. In the era of globalization and international trade, the PBE method is probably one of the reasons for the “carbon leakage” phenomenon. In this phenomenon, developed countries with greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction responsibilities achieve their emission reduction targets by moving their emission-intensive industries to developing countries without undertaking their reduction responsibilities, may further increase global carbon emissions given that production technology in developing countries is behind that in developed countries and generates excess CO2. The global emission reduction system will only accelerate this process [5]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion