Multi-regional Input-output Approach Research Articles

Dissecting household carbon and energy inequality: A decade's insight into regional disparities and urban-rural dynamics in China

Substantial inequalities exist in carbon and energy footprints across households in China, due to variations in income and consumption patterns. Examining these inequalities and their driving factors amid the rapid economic and energy transition is crucial for making informed climate policies. Here, we investigate the variations and driving factors of household carbon and energy inequality across urban and rural areas and ten income groups in China during 2007–2017 by employing the environmentally extended multiregional input–output approach and national household consumption survey data. The results reveal that urban regions tend to exhibit higher carbon and energy footprints, coupled with greater inequality, compared to rural regions. The carbon and energy inequalities in the less developed provinces are mainly attributed to urban-rural differences, whereas in the more developed provinces, intra-urban differences play a dominant role. The carbon and energy inequality declined in China during 2007–2017. We argue that the reduction in carbon and energy inequality in China can be attributed to footprints increases in rural regions, a trend that should be carefully considered in future low carbon development policy formulation.

Not All Emissions Are Created Equal: Multidimensionality in Nations’ Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Affluence/Emissions Nexus

This study proposes a multidimensional emissions profile (MEP) framework, aiming to analyze how a broad social force systematically and heterogeneously affects four emission components of nations: (1) emissions generated by domestic-oriented supply chain activities, (2) emissions embodied in imports, (3) emissions embodied in exports, and (4) direct emissions of end-user activities. I implement a multiregional input-output approach to operationalize these emission components. Using the MEP framework and dynamic fixed-effects models with the seemingly unrelated regression estimator, I find these four emission components are heterogeneously related to national affluence in high-income nations. As these nations become even wealthier, affluence is gradually decoupled from emissions generated by domestic-oriented supply chain activities and direct end-user emissions, yet it remains strongly coupled with the other two emission components in distinct ways. The findings demonstrate the MEP framework’s utility and contribute a multidimensional perspective to the debate on the economic development–climate change relationship.

Revealing transmissions of atmospheric heavy metals hidden in the Chinese supply chain

Heavy metals (HMs) pose significant risks to human health and the environment. Identifying the sectors that play a significant role in the transmission of HMs has rarely been considered and represents an efficient method to control and manage HMs. By combining atmospheric HM emission inventories, the multi-regional input-output approach, and a betweenness-based method, this study revealed the transmission of HMs (comprehensively evaluated by the Heavy Metal Pollution Load, HMPL) in 2017. In 2017, 119.86 million tons of HMPL were transmitted through China's supply chain, and Cr was the main contributor to HMPL transmission. The results suggest that metal smelting is the primary contributor to HMPL transmission, and metal smelting in Jiangsu, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Anhui are the top five critical nodes. These results suggest that the sector's role changes dramatically with respect to HM control under this perspective. The role of HM emission-intensive sectors changed the most, as their production-based HMPLs accounted for 84% of the total HMPL; however, the HMPL transmitted by these sectors accounted for only 45% of the total. The critical HMPL transmission sectors identified in this study provide a basis for policy-making from a transmission perspective.

Tele-connecting local consumption to cultivated land use and hidden drivers in China

China faces significant pressure on cultivated land resources due to the accelerated pace of urbanization in recent years. The study of embodied cultivated land offers a new perspective on alleviating pressure on cultivated land between different regions. However, the temporal dynamics characteristic and the intersectoral linkages of embodied cultivated land have rarely been systematically described. Therefore, we applied an environmental extended multi-regional input-output approach to analyze the spatial patterns and flow relationships of virtual cultivated land (VCL) between regional, provincial and sectoral scale in China from 2007 to 2017, considering both temporal and spatial dimensions. Then, we explored the hidden drivers of VCL change using structural decomposition analysis (SDA). Our results showed that trade embodied cultivated land increase by 8.5 % from 2007 to 2017. The flow trend is primarily flowed out from the less developed northwest China but with abundant cultivated land to the more developed regions of the southeast coast. Especially, in 2015, the net outflow of VCL from the northwest region reached 15.82 Mha, which was the maximum value during the study period. In addition, agricultural and construction sector were the major land consumption sector. VCL consumed by the agricultural sector declined 12.51 %, while the VCL consumed by construction sector had a significant growth in 2007–2017. Furthermore, the results of SDA revealed that cultivated land use intensity and per capita final demand were the main factors causing changes in embodied cultivated land. The results can help clarify the responsible parties for land consumption and provide a guarantee for alleviating the pressure on regional cultivated land resources.

Recycling sludge in agriculture? Assessing sustainability of nutrient recovery in Italy

Abstract Using a hybrid multi-regional input–output approach, we traced sustainability footprints of a nutrient recovery strategy from sewage sludge applied in Italy. We then compared the results with the most common landfilling practice. Overall, accounting for indirect global upstream effects, using sewage sludge for organic fertiliser production generates more jobs and reduces more greenhouse gas emissions than landfilling. By contrast, landfilling stimulates the whole economy more, generating higher indirect turnover and reduces energy carrier use more. Finally, we accounted for uncertainties in these results using an error propagation method based on Monte Carlo simulations.

EU-27 ecological footprint was primarily driven by food consumption and exceeded regional biocapacity from 2004 to 2014

The European Union (EU) plans to decarbonize the region by 2050. As highlighted by the Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy, food systems are essential for this transition. Here we investigate the resource dependence and carbon emissions of the EU-27’s food systems from 2004 to 2014 via an ecological footprint (EF)-extended multi-regional input–output approach, accounting for demand and supply (including trade), and considering multiple externalities. Food contributes towards almost a third of the region’s EF, and appropriates over half of its biocapacity. Average reliance on biocapacity within national borders decreased, while reliance on intra-EU biocapacity increased; yet a quarter of the biocapacity for food consumption originates from non-EU countries. Despite a reduction in both total EF and food EF over the study period, EU-27 residents demand more from nature than the region’s ecosystems can regenerate—highlighting the need for new or strengthened food and trade policies to enable a transformation to sustainable EU food systems.

Quantifying plastic use and waste footprints in SIDS: Application to Seychelles

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are the most vulnerable territories to marine litter and plastic waste pollution. The magnitude of the issue and ways of action can only be known if the material flows and their origins are correctly estimated. Unfortunately, small territories are often left outside the global ecological footprint databases and models. The present research aims at quantifying the plastic footprint of Seychelles through a standard Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EEIOA) and multi-regional input-output (MRIO) approach combining international and domestic data in the south-west Indian Ocean region. The results of several model specifications and industrial classifications are compared to the literature findings and show that SIDS may display the same level of plastic use and waste per capita as high-income countries, without the same infrastructure of waste treatment. A few services and exporting sectors concentrate the bulk of the territorial quantity of plastics used throughout the economy. The multi-regional Indian Ocean context helps to foresee potential joint actions in order to reduce the plastic footprint of SIDS.

Use of nested multi-regional input–output analysis for the evaluation of subnational emission reduction policies: A case of Japanese prefectures

Many subnational regions around the world, in their own capacity for policy formulation and implementation, have set targets for net-zero carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions. However, most targets do not consider consumption-based emissions, which include emissions generated outside their borders to produce the products they consume. It is partly due to methodological difficulties and data gaps that subnational governments often face but this situation could misguide their efforts in the face of the goal of reducing global emissions. To facilitate an understanding of consumption-based subnational carbon emissions and informed subnational policymaking, this study proposes a relatively simple and less data-intensive methodology for subnational consumption-based emission analysis. It uses a nested multi-regional input–output approach by combining a publicly available global multi-regional input–output table and a subnational input–output table, whose computation is repeated for multiple regions for comparison. A case study of three Japanese prefectures with different levels of renewable electricity consumption was conducted using the 2015 datasets. The results showed that two prefectures with similar socioeconomic conditions, except for their totally different renewable electricity ratios (90 % and 4.6 %), exhibited a 25 % difference (4.4- and 6.0-ton CO2) in per capita household consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions in 2015. Counterfactual policy scenarios were analyzed using the constructed models. Application of an increased renewable electricity scenario indicated that an approximate 10 % increase in the prefectural renewable electricity ratio could reduce household per capita consumption-based emissions by 151–179 kg CO2 in those prefectures. Consumption-based emissions disaggregated by product category indicated that increasing the renewable electricity ratio had significant consumption-based emission reduction effects on not only electricity itself but also on services, particularly commerce, hotel, and restaurant services. The potential impacts of changing renewable electricity ratios on consumption-based emissions were found to be high for products whose share in household spending on local products and electricity cost in their production was large. A scenario analysis of home electrification, assuming the total replacement of household fuel gases and kerosene with electricity, resulted in a modest consumption-based emission reduction potential of less than 10 % for a prefecture with a high renewable electricity ratio and even showed a slight emission increase for a prefecture with a low renewable electricity ratio. In using commonly available datasets without the need to model trade flows between subnational regions, this study's method could realistically be applied by subnational governments to estimate consumption-based emissions of their jurisdiction, compared with other regions, and analyze the potential effects of emission reduction policy scenarios.

Natural and social scarcity in water Footprint: A multiregional input–output analysis for Italy

This study estimates the pressure exerted by Italian consumption on domestic and foreign water resources, adopting the Multiregional Input Output (MRIO) approach and using the information of the most recent (year 2014) World Input-Output Database (WIOD). Disaggregated results are obtained at country/industry level, identifying geographical and sectoral hotspots. The standard volumetric measure of the water footprint (WF) is compared with two impact-weighted measures. Scarce Water Footprint (SWF) corrects the volumetric measure accounting physical scarcity as expressed by a Water Scarcity Index (WSI), based on the ratio between withdrawals and supply of water at the national level. To account also for social factors affecting the availability of water, we propose a further measure of footprint, the Social-Scarce Water Footprint (SoSWF). We find that SWF represents 33.9% of volumetric WF, but the geographical breakdown reveals a relevant asymmetry between domestic and external water exploitation: while only 11.2% of WF generated impacts on domestic scarce water resources, SWF for imports amounted to 54.9% of the total water resources used to produce imported goods. About 45% of the Italian external SWF is generated in China and India by manufacturing, agriculture and electricity, gas and water supply. When also social scarcity is considered we find that the 43% of WF generated impacts on scarce water resources, and an even more evident asymmetry between domestic and external footprints (12.8% vs 71.1% of WF).

Material footprints in global value chains with consideration of multinational enterprises

The world has witnessed an unprecedented growth in extraction of materials and natural resources in the past few decades. The emerging of multinational enterprises has dramatically challenged the understanding of materials along Global Value Chains. To have a full picture of world material footprints, it is essential to understand to what extent materials are re-distributed by trade and investments. This study employs an Environmental-Extended multi-regional Input-Output approach with explicit consideration on multinational enterprises to trace the embodied material flows along Global Value Chains. The results show that both the outsourcing and offshoring of production by trade and the overseas investments by multinational enterprises contribute to the surging material extraction in developing countries. The results also highlight the role of fixed capital formation in driving the increase of the material footprints. The sustainable development goals call for collaboration of all nations with more focuses on the role of multinational enterprises.

Urban and rural carbon footprints in developing countries

A good understanding of household carbon emissions is an important part of forming climate mitigation strategies to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. Numerous studies have been carried out on emissions from household consumption and the inequality between urban and rural areas in high-income developed countries, but there is a lack of in-depth analysis of such differences in developing countries. Our research details household carbon footprints (CFs) of four urban and four rural income categories for 90 developing countries, by linking global expenditure data to the environmentally extended multi-regional input–output approach. We show that there are large inequalities between urban and rural areas in developing countries. The average per capita CF in urban areas tends to be larger than that of rural inhabitants ranging from twice as large to nine times larger. We find that electricity consumption and transport are the largest contributors to the total CF in all expenditure groups. High-income rural households have an average per capita CF of 12.38 t CO2 which is 25% higher than the equivalent urban high-income group, which deviates from the literature looking at a subset of cases. Our study contributes to the existing research on CFs by providing knowledge on the consumption patterns and related carbon emissions of urban and rural populations in these understudied parts of the world.

Regional embodied Water-Energy-Carbon efficiency of China

Limited publications were designed to examine the Water-Energy-Carbon (WEC) efficiency of different regions. This study is the first to seek to identify the regional embodied WEC efficiency of China, including 31 of 34 provinces, using the Multiregional Input-Output approach. The provincial embodied WEC coefficients, total amount of embodied WEC, embodied amount of WEC per capita are explored. Results show that: i) Xinjiang (33 Gt/k€), Hebei (34 MJ/€) and Ningxia (5 t/k€) separately dominate the lists of provincial embodied water consumption coefficients, energy consumption coefficients and CO2 emission coefficients; ii) Shandong and Jiangsu consume the most embodied water at 109 Gm3 and 105 Gm3, embodied energy at 21 EJ and 20 EJ, and emit the most CO2 emissions at 2.7 Gt and 2.2 Gt. However, as the more developed province and with higher GDP, Guangdong has lower embodied WEC amount and higher WEC efficiency; ⅲ) The regions that have larger values of embodied WEC per capita, mainly located at the east and north-west of China, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. This study targets the contribution to understanding the regional WEC efficiency performance, highlighting the spots and economies that deserve the uppermost attention for emissions reduction.

On the competitiveness impact of the EU CBAM: An Input-Output approach

Curbing climate change is gaining increasing consensus globally. While many countries seek to set carbon prices, significant price dispersion and policy stringency continue to raise concerns about competitiveness. To address this issue, the EU has proposed a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which aims to level the playing field by levying a carbon price on EU imports. Theoretically, this mechanism would reduce the competitiveness of developing countries' exports and, therefore, shift the environmental burden from developed regions to the emerging world. In this paper, we estimate the competitiveness and welfare impacts of the EU CBAM, based on the so-called multi-regional input-output approach. We quantify changes in the value of exports to the EU market upon CBAM implementation for both EU members and non-EU countries, plus the rest of the world. It is found that the EU CBAM will lead to a redistribution of competitiveness among countries and regions, while the effect is seen to be more pronounced in emissions-intensive and trade-intensive sectors. Moreover, a deeper sub-national-level analysis on China shows that, given its pervasive domestic production network, income losses in landlocked provinces exceed their export losses, contrasting with the pattern for trade-exposed provinces.

Socioeconomic and environmental impacts of bringing the sun to earth: A sustainability analysis of a fusion power plant deployment

Producing electricity by nuclear fusion on Earth in this century is pursued by the academia and governments. Apart from the environmental and energy security benefits, fusion energy deployment would stimulate economic growth and employment. This research provides novel results of the global socioeconomic (value added, employment) and environmental (CO2) effects of the investments in a fusion power plant of 1.45 GW hypothetically deployed in Europe. A multi-regional input-output approach is used. Results show a multiplier effect in the production of goods and services of 2.2 (3.6 considering induced effects). The most benefited are Europe (47%) and United States (20%), due to the investment phase. In O&M, China and Japan arise as important suppliers. Most of value added would be captured in Europe (48%) and the United States (28%), being mining, construction and business services the most benefited activities. Intensive in employment generation, it would create 183 thousand full-time equivalent jobs, mainly in Europe (46%) and China (21%). The carbon footprint would be 11.4 gCO2/kWh mostly originated in Europe, United States and Japan, with a similar share. When considered, induced effects have a relevant impact on results. Despite the limitations, ex-ante evaluations are essential in setting priorities for fusion technology development.

Economic development and converging household carbon footprints in China

There are substantial differences in carbon footprints across households. This study applied an environmentally extended multiregional input–output approach to estimate household carbon footprints for 12 different income groups of China’s 30 regions. Subsequently, carbon footprint Gini coefficients were calculated to measure carbon inequality for households across provinces. We found that the top 5% of income earners were responsible for 17% of the national household carbon footprint in 2012, while the bottom half of income earners caused only 25%. Carbon inequality declined with economic growth in China across space and time in two ways: first, carbon footprints showed greater convergence in the wealthier coastal regions than in the poorer inland regions; second, China’s national carbon footprint Gini coefficients declined from 0.44 in 2007 to 0.37 in 2012. We argue that economic growth not only increases income levels but also contributes to an overall reduction in carbon inequality in China.

Understanding the Energy-Water-Land Flow Nexus in Transnational Trade of the Belt and Road Countries

Economic globalization and population growth have greatly challenged energy, water and land resources to meet demand at national and supra-national level. A growing share of this demand is met through trade. The Belt and Road, a major global initiative of China, with trade as one of its core fields is of particular importance due to greater potential of economic growth, substantial population size and varying degree of resource availability. The initiative reflects a new phase of globalization yet resources management with nexus thinking has received little attention. The increasing economic interdependence of national economies have contributed to rise in production and trade of goods and services, these activities require the input of energy-water-land and generate disturbances in the environment. The multi-regional input-output approach is utilized, to assess resources use by production as well as consumption (for the year 2010). A nexus strength indicator was developed to show the simultaneous use of multiple resources in economic system, conceived as resource nexus. The ternary diagrams were used for screening resources combinations along with concentration.Results revealed that China has strong nexus strength that indicates large usage of the three resources together. Besides China, the East European countries were also positioned mostly at the center of ternary plot suggesting somewhat equal contributions of energy, water and land to the resource nexus. On the contrary, countries that appeared at the margins of the plot indicated one or two stronger nexus components in the three resources system. For instance, Russia largely used land, South Korea was entirely driven by energy while India mostly used water in the ternary mix. Due to differences in industrial structure, trade policy priorities and technology use, the resource nexus matters are not the same among countries. The nexus strength indicator established that strong nexus caused by intensive use of energy, water and land results in low efficiency, which threatens resource security. With this approach, it is possible to evaluate the characteristics and behavior of economies relating to energy, water and land resource flows. As such the study is intended to serve as a reference work for policymakers and researchers primarily those working in Belt and Road countries that can build on to conduct more detailed nexus assessments in future to achieve sustainability.

The social, economic, and environmental implications of biomass ethanol production in China: A multi-regional input-output-based hybrid LCA model

As an alternative to conventional liquid fuels, bioethanol holds the promise of transitioning to a clean and low-carbon energy future. China’s bioethanol industry is at its nascent stage. In this study, we developed a hybrid life cycle assessment model that integrates the multi-regional input-output (MRIO) approach and specific production data to evaluate the social, economic, and environmental (i.e. the triple-bottom-line, TBL) impacts of the bioethanol sector in China’s economic systems. The MRIO model was constructed using the 2012 MRIO table, and the data for the typical technologies of bioethanol production were leveraged. To be specific, we evaluated employment creation, economic stimulus, and energy use of bioethanol production in 28 scenarios in Henan province. The results show that compared to petroleum refining, bioethanol production is more effective for economic stimulus and energy saving, but less effective at job creation. The impact of bioethanol production varies by technologies. For every 1 million yuan of bioethanol production in China’ economic system, first-generation technology offers a projected 1.92 million yuan in economic growth and job creation of 2.06 full-time equivalent, while the second-generation technology offers a lower energy consumption (1.19 TJ). In most scenarios, the upstream sectors account for more than half of the TBL impacts of biofuel production. This study helps to quantify the TBL impacts associated with the gasoline-to-bioethanol transition in China, envisions the green opportunities for impact mitigation, and sheds light on the potential direction for robust planning and policy making to advance the bioethanol industry’s development.

Provincial virtual energy-water use and its flows within China: A multiregional input-output approach

The energy industry in China is responsible for the largest water withdrawal and consumption in the secondary industry. In addition to the large quantities, another important feature of energy-water use in China is a critical spatial mismatch between water consumption and water availability. We used a multiregional input-output model to investigate virtual water of the energy industry in the Chinese provinces, and to determine virtual water flows embedded in energy-related trade among the provinces. The domestic interprovincial trade of energy in China has caused virtual water being used outside of the energy production province, including 8.6% of the virtual water withdrawal and 15.6% of the virtual water consumption. The results demonstrate there are a general north-to-south flow and a west-to-east flow of virtual energy-water within China. This flowing pattern indicates the energy consumption in the more-developed provinces, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, are supported by water use from the less-developed provinces where water scarcity is severe. Particularly, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia are two major exporters of virtual energy-water because more than half of the water resources in these two provinces outflow mainly to the north region, imposing huge pressure on the scarce domestic water resources in these two provinces. This study has proved the great importance of and also provided an approach to integrating water-energy nexus into energy industry planning and management in China.

Environmental pressures from Swedish consumption – A hybrid multi-regional input-output approach

Sweden has a policy goal of solving major environmental problems in Sweden within a generation, without increasing environmental or health problems in other countries. Following up this goal requires indicators for domestic and external footprints of Swedish consumption. This paper presents such macro-level indicators for the years 2008–2014.The new indicators are consistent with Swedish statistics from the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts. They combine a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) database, to capture the external components of Sweden's consumption, with national input-output, trade and environmental statistics. The hybrid MRIO-Sweden model provides a comprehensive environmental account for follow-up of the Generational Goal.This paper presents impacts from household consumption, government consumption and capital formation, covering emissions of greenhouse gases, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5), land use, materials consumption, and blue water consumption.Except for land use, the majority (60% or more) of the environmental pressures due to consumption occurred outside Sweden in 2014; more than 90% of sulphur emissions and more than 80% of the water use fell abroad. The environmental pressures from consumption decreased over this period for all indicators (except materials consumption). This suggests an absolute decoupling between environmental pressure due to consumption and economic growth, which rose over the period. It is, however, too early to determine whether this is a genuine trend or a temporary stabilisation.

Interregional Water-carbon Nexus Control Pathwayin Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei

Water scarcity and heavy carbon emission are two main environmental problems in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. Water resources are consumed in inter-regional trade while carbon emissions are generated and transferred across various industrial sectors and even regions via supply chains. In this study, we employ the Multi-regional Input-output (MRIO) approach to model both water and carbon flows embodied in the inter-regional system. The network control analysis (NCA) originated from ecological network analysis is combined with MRIO to determine major control pathways across the concerned regions. As a result, key control pathways via the specific sectors are identified. The results show that, considering water consumption, prominent water control pathways are mainly located in Hebei province, of which, the top one is Hebei’s agriculture sector controlling its light manufacturing sector with 1.13×103 million m3, followed by Hebei’s Heavy Manufacturing sector controlling its Construction sector with 5.38×102 million m3. In Beijing and Tianjin, local Heavy Manufacturing sector and Construction sector are considered as notable control pathways. On the other hand, regarding carbon emissions, the most significant control pathway is Heavy Manufacturing sector controlling construction sector in Hebei. Also, Electricity and water supply sector in Hebei owns several prominent control pathways with Construction sector, Manufacturing sector and Service sector. In Beijing and Tianjin, major control pathways are Electricity sector controlling Service sector and Manufacturing sector controlling Construction sector. This study may provide a framework to identify control pathways on water consumption and carbon emission and formulate polices with clear control objectives and paths for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.