Environmental Load Displacement Research Articles

Global asymmetries in the rise of solar power: An LCA-based account of ecologically unequal exchange between Germany and China 2002–2018

Global installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology have reached unprecedented levels and is expected to further rise in the coming decades. Conventional interpretations have neglected international trade flows and the globally uneven valuation of labor and resources as relevant for the commercialization of solar PV technology. This study challenges these interpretations by assessing whether the rapid increase in solar power was based an uneven flow of resources in the world economy. The study relies on an LCA-based account of ecologically unequal exchange in two focal PV commodities between Germany and China 2002–2018. The results show how this trade was characterized by an intensifying rate of ecologically unequal exchange, which gradually improved Germany's prospect of installing solar PV modules at the expense of increasing environmental loads in China. This environmental load displacement contributed to 15 times lower production costs per watt and considerably higher EROI (from 2.2:1 to 77:1) and power density (from 4.3 W/m2 to 143 W/m2) in Germany. The study concludes that ecologically unequal exchange may have been integral to the global rise of solar power and cautions that environmental load displacements may be inherent to the success of social metabolisms reliant upon solar energy harnessed through PV technology.

The impact of economic complexity on embodied carbon emission in trade: new empirical evidence from cross-country panel data

Establishing a fair platform for allocating carbon emission responsibility worldwide determines the sustainability and efficiency of the world’s climate policy and framework. In the context of global environmental load displacement and CO2 transfer, this paper endeavors to examine the relationship between economic complexity and embodied carbon emissions based on cross-country panel data. Our study utilizes the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach to estimate our dynamic models covering 34 OECD countries and 24 non-OECD countries from 1995 to 2015. The empirical results show a heterogeneous impact of economic complexity on embodied carbon emissions in exports (EEE) and imports (EEI). Besides, the scale effect, composition effect, and technology effect are also significant drivers of embodied carbon emissions. The improvement of economic complexity can decrease the marginal effects of export scale and export structure on foreign EEE (but not domestic EEE) significantly, while the marginal positive impacts of technology on EEE can be further enhanced by economic complexity growth. Moreover, there is no strong evidence to prove the significant indirect impacts of economic complexity on foreign carbon emission embodied in imports, while economic complexity has significantly positive indirect impacts on domestic carbon emission embodied in imports only through import scale. In the subsample regressions, we found asymmetric impacts of economic complexity between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries.

Environmental factors in trade during the great transformation: advancing the geographical coverage before 1950

AbstractIn the study of trade-embedded environmental factors (land, water, energy, or material flows), three conflicting interpretations prevail concerning what happened before 1950. The ‘great specialization’ narrative argues that trade served to lighten pressure on the environment by redistributing environmental services from where they were abundant to where they were scarce. The ‘great divergence’ sees an exploitative transfer from poor countries to rich and powerful ones or an environmental load displacement from rich to poor. The ‘great acceleration’ dismisses flows as insignificant either way. We review long-term national studies and find an almost exclusive focus on developed countries, mostly European and especially the UK, where more systematic studies tend to support ‘specialization’ and/or ‘acceleration’. By contrast, more qualitative studies on individual exports from developing countries often support ‘divergence’, but, since imports are excluded by design, this can never be demonstrated. We propose widening the geographical scope of long-term national studies beyond Europe and extending existing studies with bilateral trade, and suggest that ‘developing country’ trade be quantified according to existing methods of environmental accounting.

Air pollution embodied in China’s trade with the BR countries: Transfer pattern and environmental implication

Abstract Knowledge about environmental load displacement and its effects of China’s trade with the Belt and road (BR) countries will help develop coordinating policies to jointly promote green development in the regions. This paper presents an empirical study on embodied air pollution displacement of China-BR trade by employing a multi-region input-output model. Embodied air pollution trade and its transfer pattern, as well as the driving force for changes in China’s trade embodied air pollution intensity, are investigated. We found that, in the period of analysis, embodied air pollution displacement between China and the BR countries was aggravated and China was in embodied air pollution trade surplus. Most net transfer mainly came from its energy importers with better air quality and higher Human Development Index. This indicated that the net embodied air pollution transfer from the BR countries to China would not bring significant environmental and sustainability impacts on those suppliers. However, embodied air pollution flowed from the BR countries to China decreased the overall environmental performance and efficiency. Decomposition analysis showed technology effect served the main force driving force for the drops in China’s trade embodied air pollution intensity. The findings are beneficial for policymakers of the BR countries to take measures to promote their sustainable development.

The sociology of ecologically unequal exchange, foreign investment dependence and environmental load displacement: summary of the literature and implications for sustainability

The article begins by summarizing sociological approaches to (1) ecologically unequal exchange, and (2) foreign investment dependence and environmental load displacement. These areas of sociological inquiry consist of structural theories and cross-national statistical analyses that test hypotheses derived from both approaches. It concludes by briefly describing sociological research on global civil society and the environment, with a focus on the world society approach to environmental change. This area of theory and research provides some insights on ways in which global and transnational civil society groups, such as environmental international nongovernmental organizations, can partially mitigate the environmental harms caused by ecologically unequal exchanges and environmental load displacements.Key words: ecologically unequal exchange, environmental load displacement, foreign investment dependence

‘Environmental load displacement’ from the North to the South: A consumption-based perspective with a focus on China

Quantifying environmental load displacement from developed countries (the North) to developing countries (the South) is of particular importance for understanding the environmental implications of consumption in the North and global sustainability. Based on a global input–output model, this paper estimates emissions transfers between the North and the South for eight types of air pollutants from a consumption perspective, with a focus on emissions transfers between the North and China. The results show that 14%–30% of air pollutant emissions in the South were caused by consumption in the North in 2007. There is a large ‘pollution deficit’ between the North and South, which significantly increased during the period 1995–2007, that favors the theory of ecologically unequal exchange. Although the emissions per capita of the North from production for most air pollutants decreased over this period, the emissions per capita from consumption increased or decreased more mildly. The decomposition of emissions transfers further shows that South–South trade in intermediates has played an increasingly important role in environmental load displacement from the North to the South. It is important to assess the sustainability of so-called ‘weightless economies’ in the North from a global perspective that takes environmental load displacement into account.

Zero-Sum World

This article discusses various ways in which conventional discourse on sustainability fails to acknowledge the distributive, political, and cultural dimensions of global environmental problems. It traces some lineages of critical thinking on environmental load displacement and ecologically unequal exchange, arguing that such acknowledgement of a global environmental `zero-sum game' is essential to recognizing the extent to which cornucopian perceptions of `development' represent an illusion. It identifies five interconnected illusions currently postponing systemic crisis and obstructing rational societal negotiations that acknowledge the political dimensions of global ecology: 1) The fragmentation of scientific perspectives into bounded categories such as `technology', `economy', and `ecology'. 2) The assumption that the operation of market prices is tantamount to reciprocity. 3) The illusion of machine fetishism, that is, that the technological capacity of a given population is independent of that population's position in a global system of resource flows. 4) The representation of inequalities in societal space as developmental stages in historical time. 5) The conviction that `sustainable development' can be achieved through consensus. The article offers some examples of how the rising global anticipation of socio-ecological contradiction and disaster is being ideologically disarmed by the rhetoric on `sustainability' and `resilience'.

The AICCAN, the geGDP, and the Monetisation Frontier: a typology of 'environmentally adjusted' national sustainability indicators

This paper discusses the policy uses, and limits, of three key concepts for defining 'environmentally adjusted' macro-economic indicators for a national economy. The first is change in the system boundary, an enlargement of the scope of national economic accounting to include natural assets; this yields an 'Aggregate Indicator of the Change, during the Current year, in the economic Assets of the Nation' (AICCAN). The second is adjustment of the economy itself, to a new pattern of production processes, levels of production and consumption activity; this yields a 'greened economy GDP' (geGDP). The third, from consideration of the 'openness' of an economy, is adjustment of an AICCAN or geGDP to account for direct and indirect 'inter-country environmental load displacement' associated with trans-boundary pollution flows and trade.

Footprints in the cotton fields: The Industrial Revolution as time–space appropriation and environmental load displacement

This paper offers a method for quantifying the global exchange of (natural) space and (labor) time underlying the economic success of the British textile industry in the late 18th and early 19th century. Using historical statistics on inputs of land and labor embodied in cotton and wool production, respectively, estimates are made of the amount of British land and labor that were ‘saved’ by displacing fibre production to North America. By comparing inputs of land and labor in the textile exports of England with those in some commodities imported from its colonial periphery, and juxtaposing these data with exchange rates, estimates are also made of unequal exchange. Using such methods, it is possible to bring together the Marxist concern with unequal exchanges of labor time, on one hand, with the more recent concern with ecological footprints, on the other.

US environmental load displacement: examining consumption, regulations and the role of NAFTA

In light of concerns that structural changes to US production may not be accompanied by similar changes to US consumption, this paper provides a detailed examination of US environmental load displacement over the period 1974–2001. The forces that drive such displacement are also examined, with particular attention paid to the scale and composition of US consumption, the share of imports in consumption, the role of environmental regulations and the potential impact of NAFTA. It is found that the USA as a whole has experienced environmental load displacement over the period under consideration, with the extent of this displacement seeming to increase over the last decade. It would appear to be the increasing scale of US trade that is increasing environmental load displacement. Indeed, the composition of US imports and exports have become significantly cleaner over the period considered. However, although imports from Mexico have grown more rapidly than exports to Mexico, no evidence is found to suggest that NAFTA is increasing displacement to Mexico. With regard to US domestic consumption patterns, although they have become cleaner, a greater share than ever is now met via imports. Sectoral pollution abatement costs are found to be a determinant of this increasing share of imports in domestic consumption.

Embodied pollution in trade: estimating the ‘environmental load displacement’ of industrialised countries

The present paper sets out to aid in the development of ‘environmental load displacement’ indicators. Developing the notion of the ‘environmental memory’ of physical flows, we estimated embodied pollution in trade of 18 industrialized countries with (a) the rest of the world and (b) developing countries, from 1976 to 1994. We found that in the last years of analysis, total imports of Japan, USA and Western Europe have entailed, in general, larger air pollutant emissions than local exports. The balance of embodied emissions in trade (BEET) seems to follow an inverted-U shape across time in Japan and Western Europe, and an N-shape in the US. In the period of analysis, Japanese and European environmental terms of trade with developing countries ‘improved’ (from the Japanese and European point of view), whereas American environmental terms of trade with developing countries ‘deteriorated’ over time. Although there is no statistical trend between income and embodied emissions in imports in a cross-section analysis, there does seem to be a positive relationship between both variables at a national level. The results suggest that, despite many shortcomings, this type of assessment may shed useful insights on the international aspects of sustainable development.

SouthNorth Materials Flow: History and Environmental Repercussions

The current literature on the relationship between income and environmental quality is dominated by a notion of an inverted 'U'-shaped curve between both variables. However, a key variable is missing in this kind of study: the extra-territorial environmental effects of national economies. International trade of raw materials may be a good proxy to estimate these 'environmental load displacement' effects. The present work tries to elucidate some patterns in the relationship between economic growth in affluent countries and the quantity of non-renewable materials imported from less-developed countries. The results indicate that a general de-linking between economic growth and Southern resource consumption is not occurring in the industrialized world. Thus, developed countries may be increasingly displacing the environmental costs associated with material throughput to poorer regions of the world.

Embodied Pollution in Trade: Estimating the 'Environmental Load Displacement' of Industrialised Countries

The present paper sets out to aid in the development of load displacement indicators. Developing the notion of the memory of physical flows, we estimated embodied pollution in trade of 18 industrialised countries with a) the rest of the world and b) developing countries, from 1976 to 1994. We found that in the last years of analysis, total imports of Japan, USA and Western Europe have entailed, in general, larger air pollutant emissions than local exports. The balance of embodied emissions in trade (BEET) seems follow an inverted-U shape across time in Japan and Western Europe, and an N-shape in the US. In the period of analysis, Japanese and European environmental terms of trade with developing countries have improved, whereas American environmental terms of trade with developing countries tended to deteriorate over time. Although there is no statistical trend between income and embodied emissions in imports in a cross-section analysis, there does seem to be a positive relationship between both variables at a national level. The results suggest that, despite many shortcomings, this type of assessment of embodied environmental pressures in inter-country physical flows may shed useful insights on the international aspects of sustainable development. Particularly, on the distribution of the environmental costs of trade and the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation.

Inter-country environmental load displacement and adjusted national sustainability indicators: concepts and their policy applications

The focus of this paper is to discuss and show the policy relevance of displacement adjustments to national aggregate (macroeconomic) indicators for taking account of openness to the rest of the world. A national is considered as a set of production and consumption sectors interdependent with (i) natural processes and (ii) other national economies. In this structural perspective, three distinct concepts are put to work in the development of aggregate indicators. The first type of adjustment centres on accounting conventions, through an enlargement of the scope of national accounting to include specified monetary accounting for selected categories of environmental assets. This is the basis for construction of an Aggregate Indicator of the Change, during the Current year, in the economic Assets of the Nation (AICCAN for short). The second indicator type is based on hypotheses of adjustment of the itself that is, modelling of an adjusted economy which respects specified environmental performance standards. We call the corresponding indicators greened GDP (geGDP for short). In the third adjustment procedure, the AICCAN/geGDP concepts are maintained, and further classifications are introduced for making the distinction between costs borne and costs caused by a nation. A simple typology of the different types of between-nation load displacement is presented, and a variety of selected examples is presented of different types of inter-country environmental displacement indicator concepts and empirical results that can be found in the published literature. Perspectives are developed for future research that can deepen statistical analysis of patterns of ecologically unequal exchange between countries.