Multi-regional Input-output Analysis Research Articles

Preenchendo a lacuna entre produção e ecologia: uma análise multirregional de insumo-produto das atuais relações produtivas e ecológicas brasileiras e chinesas

ABSTRACT The arising literature on Ecological Unequal Exchange (EUE) incorporates multiple elements of post-Keynesian strands, in particular the structuralist analysis of global economic relations and the center-periphery divide. Nevertheless, there is still little discussion in the literature on the synergies and interconnections of the productive and ecological aspects of the peripheral condition. This work intends to enter this debate by proposing a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis of the recent pattern of economic relations between Brazil and China, focusing on the evolution and linkages between the productive and the ecological aspects. The results show a rising unequal exchange of biophysical resources that flows from Brazil to China which is tied to key sectors of the recent Chinese catching-up process. In conclusion, it is argued that productive and ecological hierarchies entail two sides of the same coin of the peripheral condition.

Impacts of water constraints on economic outputs and trade: A multi-regional input-output analysis in China

Water resource constraints pose significant challenges to sustainable development of economy, environment, and human society. This study addresses the existing gap in understanding the impacts of water resource constraints on economic outputs and inter-provincial trade in China. A water-use constrained multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model is developed to analyze the impacts on economic outputs resulting from different water constraints imposed on economic sectors. A series of scenarios are designed to represent different levels of sectoral water use restrictions based on short-term water policy and water stress alleviation targets. Results reveal that regions experience different levels of water stress displaying diverse economic impacts due to future water restrictions. Overall, national economic outputs will experience a 0.76–1.14% decrease compared to the baseline scenario, that is, the “business-as-usual” scenario. Provinces with lower levels of economic development tend to be less resilient to the economic losses arising from water constraints. As such, Ningxia and Shanxi show with the greatest relative economic impact, accounting for 7.09% and 4.21% of their respective provinces’ economic outputs under the baseline scenario. Furthermore, the direction of net bilateral trade, such as net trade between Henan and Shaanxi or between Henan and Hunan, would reverse under water constraint scenarios from the baseline scenario. This underscores the importance of considering the cascading effects of local water constraints on inter-provincial trade. Our study highlights the trade-offs between water conservation and economic development, emphasizing the need for region-specific water-saving measures.

Exploring the determinants of the evolution of urban and rural household carbon footprints inequality in China

Households are key actors in mitigating climate change and their carbon footprints are unequally distributed due to differences in the scale and patterns of consumption. This study separately estimates household carbon footprints inequality in urban and rural areas of China from 2012 to 2018 and identifies the factors contributing to the evolution of the inequality by applying environmentally extended multiregional input-output analysis, unconditional quantile regression and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. The results show that the largest emission growth occurred among the 50th–80th percentile of urban emitters and the highest rural emitters. The Gini coefficient of urban household carbon footprints decreased from 0.463 to 0.439, whereas that of rural household carbon footprints increased from 0.447 to 0.459. Notably, the changes of household characteristics exacerbated carbon inequality, with income growth, increased car ownership, and smaller household size being the three primary factors, while the changes in consumption preferences and technological advancements reduced carbon inequality. The latter are dominant in urban households and the former are dominant in rural households. To mitigate climate change and reduce inequality, the government should not only encourage high-emitting households to adopt greener low-carbon consumption and lifestyles, but also promote low-carbon technology innovation to reduce carbon intensity.

Identifying critical transmission sectors, paths, and carbon communities for CO2 mitigation in global supply chains

The critical transmission hubs in global supply chain networks have great potential to reduce carbon emissions, yet this has not received much attention from existing studies. This research combines the structural path betweenness, an extended structural path analysis, and a multi-level modularity optimization algorithm to identify key transmission sectors, paths, and carbon communities in a global supply chain network using the environmentally extended multi-regional input-output analysis. The results show that (1) China's metal industry, power industry, and non-metallic industry are the most crucial transmission centers, and some sectors, such as the paper industry and textile industry in China, are also key transmission hubs, yet they are ignored by traditional accounting methods. From a national viewpoint, China is the most key transmission hub, and its high betweenness is mainly caused by domestic demand. Meanwhile, the CO2 emissions transferred by China to satisfy foreign demand are mainly related to the US, ROW (especially the Asia-Pacific region), and Japan. (2) The transmitted carbon emission is mainly concentrated in the first four production layers, accounting for 69.46 % of the total. (3) The global carbon emission network can be divided into 20 carbon communities. And the largest communities are mainly led by mainland China. Most of the communities contain various national sectors, which offer evidence for international cooperation strategies. The results offer policymakers a new perspective on mitigating environmental stress.

Energy efficiency assessment of wastewater treatment plants in China based on multiregional input–output analysis and data envelopment analysis

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play a pivotal role in natural water recycling and safeguarding the water security of approximately 42% of the world's population, yet they confront challenges posed by escalating energy consumption and regional energy constraints. In this study, we developed an evaluation framework that integrated regional energy scarcity with the operation conditions of WWTPs to quantify their energy efficiencies by applying multiregional input–output (MRIO) analysis and data envelopment analysis (DEA). A case study using this framework was conducted on 3776 WWTPs in 30 provinces in China. The results showed that the average scarcity-based energy efficiency level of WWTPs in China was low, of which those in northern provinces were higher compared to southeastern provinces. Furthermore, only 24 WWTPs in China attained the highest efficiency levels, while the rest had different degrees of input redundancy, indicating an energy-saving potential of 9.05 × 109 kWh. This paper enables the development of optimal efficiency strategies for WWTPs in different provinces considering the potential energy scarcity risks caused by trading activities.

Meeting the costs of decarbonising industry – The potential effects on prices and competitiveness (a case study of the UK)

Industry produces a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and needs to be decarbonised as countries strive for net zero. But how might the costs of this be met and what effect might the options have on businesses and consumers? Using the UK as a case study, we investigate the relative effect on prices and profit margins of three idealised illustrative scenarios for distributing the costs of decarbonising industry: (1) absorbing them, (2) passing them on to consumers, and (3) sharing them along the relevant value chains. To do this, we combine direct process cost projections from a detailed industry pathway model (covering 115 sector-process combinations and 96 unique low-carbon technologies) with techniques exploiting multi-regional input-output analysis. Industrial decarbonisation consistent with net-zero goals can be achieved with an aggregate increase in prices as low as 0.8%, and minimal impact on equality. However, the impact on some industries is more pronounced; while costs might be beneficially shared between sectors to some extent, some will find this more challenging. The findings are relevant to industrial decarbonisation policies and the support they need to provide, the effects that industrial decarbonisation might have on equality, and its potential effect on international competition.

From mines to consumption via global supply chains: A viewpoint on assessing modern slavery and disease interactions

Globalisation has narrowed the gap between producers and consumers, with complex global supply chain networks forming the basis of many of the products we consume today. Modern slavery risk is known to be an ‘invisible’ problem, as modern slavery impacts are embodied in products consumed in geographically distant regions. In this viewpoint, we highlight that modern slavery and disease risk interactions have not been explored in global supply chains. We explore the value of multi-region input-output (MRIO) analysis in exploring the effects of consumption activities on modern slavery and disease risk. Using the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a region where modern slavery and disease risks are known, as a case study, we explore the potential for an integrated framework based on MRIO analysis to identify modern slavery-disease risk hotspots in supply chains. We discuss the significance of this framework in global policy setting and explore avenues for future research.

Nexus between water-energy-carbon footprint network: Multiregional input-output and coupling coordination degree analysis

With rising concerns over global issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, and resource shortages, the need for coordinated development of the water-energy-carbon (WEC) nexus has become a pressing global issue. However, existing research mainly focuses on individual sectors or specific aspects of WEC and lacks a thorough comprehension of the link among them, especially in the full supply network. This study creates a multi-model evaluation technique to estimate the WEC network across various sectors and provinces in order to close this gap. Specifically, WEC multiregional input-output analysis including 42 industrial sectors and coupling coordination degree models is proposed to further analyze the interaction relationship among WEC. The results indicate that the implied carbon footprint is positively correlated with virtual water and implied energy, but the WEC footprint is negatively correlated with the external footprint. The energy-carbon correlation is the strongest relationship, followed by the energy-water correlation. In addition, the WEC coupled network shows an extreme disorder state, while it decreases from developed areas to less developed areas. The transfer of WEC is dominated by industries with higher consumption coefficients. This phenomenon also exists in the WEC flow in provinces. From less developed to more developed places, there is a considerable influx of WEC. The multi-model evaluation method proposed in our study could be applied by governments to estimate the WEC coupled network, compare it with other regions, and analyze the potential effects of environmental policies.

Agriculture related methane emissions embodied in China's interprovincial trade

Given that agriculture is the predominant source of anthropogenic methane, evaluating the spatio-temporal trends of agriculture related CH4 emissions embodied in trade and the related drivers is an important prerequisite for climate goals. This study first adopted the IPCC tier 2 method to account agriculture related methane emissions, by taking China as a case. The embodied CH4 emissions in the interprovincial trade were then explored by employing multiregional input-output analysis. Socioeconomic factors impacting embodied emissions were uncovered. The results show that the direct CH4 emissions from agriculture in China decreased from 15.50 Tg in 2010 to 12.49 Tg in 2020, mainly contributed by the decrease from livestock production. The direct emissions were dominated by Hunan, Sichuan and Jiangxi broken down by provinces, and rice cultivation and enteric fermentation by process. Total amount of embodied CH4 emissions increased from 11.36 Tg in 2012 to 12.10 Tg in 2015, and decreased to 11.48 Tg in 2017. Shandong had the largest embodied CH4 net inflow, while Heilongjiang had the largest embodied CH4 net outflow. The significant increases in embodied CH4 net outflow of Western China transferred from North were found. GDP per-capita and food production per unit GDP had the most positive and negative contributions to the embodied emissions, respectively. Reliability of the results was further demonstrated by using sensitivity analysis and comparing with similar studies. Finally, implications were raised, including reducing the direct emission intensities, bringing embodied CH4 emission into decision making and setting the interprovincial cooperation mechanisms.

Potential Energy and Environmental Footprint Savings from Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Europe: A Scenario-Based Multiregional Input-Output Analysis.

Food loss and waste (FLW) contribute significantly to the global food system's economic and environmental burdens, including substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resource depletion, and waste management challenges. In alignment with the European Commission's sustainability objectives and U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, this study explores the potential energy and environmental footprint savings achievable by halving FLW in Europe by 2030. Using a multiregional input-output model, we estimated the total global energy and environmental footprint savings across all stages of the food supply chain, considering industry-specific FLW rates and proportion weights. The findings reveal substantial environmental savings across Europe, with aggregate savings potentially reaching 51 Mt CO2e (0.09 t CO2e/p), 4,620 Mm3 (8 m3/p) of blue water, 106,446 km2 (179 m2/p) of cropland, 55,523 km2 (93 m2/p) of grassland, and 0.47 EJ (0.54 TJ/p) of energy. The greatest potential for savings was found in Western Europe, specifically in France, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. However, countries with a lower per capita GDP, such as Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania, also demonstrate significant per capita savings potential, indicating that wealth does not necessarily correlate with higher environmental savings. Agricultural production emerged as the stage with the highest footprint reduction potential for GHG and resource footprints across Europe, while the foodservice and institutional stages offer the greatest energy-saving potential. Geographical disparities underscore the need for region-specific policies. These results challenge the wealth-sustainability correlation and advocate for adaptable policies that transcend national wealth and accommodate regional disparities, underlining the pivotal roles of the agricultural production and consumption stages in footprint savings.

Collaborative governance of trade-driven transboundary air pollution in China: A responsibility-based fair compensation mechanism

Transboundary air pollution poses a significant challenge in China, and collaborative governance presents a promising approach to tackle this problem. However, such approach is rarely implemented due to the influence of inter-regional trade dynamics. To address this issue, a comprehensive, responsibility-based fair compensation mechanism was established in the present study. The aim of the mechanism is to bridge the existing gap through the integrated utilization of air pollutant emission inventories, multi-regional input-output analysis, emission responsibility allocation, and an ecological compensation model. In 2017, approximately 50% of China's air pollutant emissions were embedded in inter-provincial trade, primarily originating from wealthier provinces and directed towards less-developed regions with higher pollution intensity. There exists a significant imbalance between the inter-provincial transfers of air pollution and economic benefits, owing to which Inner Mongolia and Liaoning have suffered from serious environmental inequity brought about by trade. The allocation of responsibility for trade-related emissions between producers and consumers is determined by the economic surplus they gain from trade. Such approach results in an intermediate outcome that falls between production-based and consumption-based emissions for the majority of provinces. The scheme highlights the import-related share of responsibility for economically developed provinces and the export-related share for less-developed, pollution-intensive provinces, which can primarily be attributed due to their differences in value chain specialization. The inter-provincial compensation volumes for trade-related emissions are determined based on the economically equitable emission responsibility sharing scheme. More developed provinces, characterized by industrial structures focused on low-pollution, high-value-added products, primarily function as compensation providers. In contrast, less-developed provinces with higher pollution intensity seek compensation from these more affluent regions. The present findings can offer a quantitative basis for the ecological compensation and collaborative control mechanism of trade-driven transboundary air pollution in China.

Protectionism's impact on embodied energy flows among 43 countries: An assessment based on input-output structural decomposition model

Free trade has made developed economies transfer a great deal of energy-intensive industries to developing economies, which induces more energy consumption in developing economies. The global spread of COVID-19 has led to trade protectionism that directly undermine the international free trade system. This paper is aimed to explore how trade protectionist measures affect global embodied energy flows, taking the case for 43 typical economies. Firstly, we combine the multi-regional input-output analysis and scenario analysis to construct an accounting framework of embodied energy consumption under free trade and restricted trade scenarios. The impact of trade protection on 43 economies' energy flows is discussed from the perspective of industrial sectors and disaggregated value chain links. Secondly, the role of technology, structure and scale factors in the protection's impact on embodied energy consumption is discussed based on structural decomposition analysis. The results indicate that under the scenario of trade-free, global energy consumption is 3880.91 million tons of oil equivalent. Under the scenario of trade-restricted, global energy consumption is 4435.56 million tons of oil equivalent, and global trade protection measures would increase global energy consumption by 554.65 million tons of oil equivalent. Trade of final products, trade of last-stage intermediate products and trade of other-stage intermediate products of the value chain contributed 42.7%, 40.5% and 16.8%, respectively, with the manufacturing industry facing the biggest impact. For emerging developing economies, such as China and Russia, their domestic energy consumption would decrease by 193.52 and 163.74 million tons of oil equivalent due to export tightening, respectively, while for developed economies, trade protection would result in an increase of 343.31 million tons of oil equivalent in EU countries. In addition, structural change and scale growth are the main factors that promote energy consumption growth under the trade restriction scenario, making it increase by 66% and 21% respectively.

Ecosystem services footprint of international trade: Economic value of ecosystem services lost due to crop production

Agricultural activities utilize provisioning ecosystem services while degrading nature’s contributions to people of natural ecosystems. These impacts are partly driven by international trade and consumption abroad. The objective of this Communication is to introduce the concept of the ecosystem services footprint and provide a pilot calculation of the economic value of ecosystem services lost due to land conversion and production of crops, which are either directly traded internationally or enter supply chains of international trade and are induced by final demand abroad. We report the ecosystem services loss footprint for 49 countries and world regions based on a multi-regional input–output analysis. We found that ecosystem services loss due to crop production for international trade is valued at $5.1 trillion per year. Consumption in China, United States and Middle East induce the highest absolute loss of value of ecosystem services. The main exporters include Asia and Pacific, Indonesia and Africa. The largest trade flow was identified between the Asia and Pacific region and Western Europe with an embodied value of ecosystem services loss of $397 billion per year. Bringing to light the monetary value of ecosystem services lost due to international trade can stimulate and contribute to the design of strategies to reduce the impact of consumption and thus to lightening our footprint on natural ecosystems.

Agricultural HANPP Embodied in Consumption: Tracing Pressure on Ecosystems Based on an MRIO Analysis.

Agriculture is one of humankind's most significant sources of biomass; it also places tremendous pressure on ecosystems through its increasing demand for agricultural products. However, few studies have assessed human pressures on ecosystems from agricultural production and consumption based on a whole-supply-chain perspective. Based on the concept of human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP), we evaluate trends of agricultural HANPP embodied in consumption from a global perspective and trace the pressure from agriculture production that is exerted on the environment using an environmentally extended multiregional input-output (MRIO) model. The results show that agricultural HANPP embodied in consumption accounted for over two-thirds of total HANPP but brought about less than 7% of global value added. India, Brazil, and China were found to have the highest level of agricultural HANPP embodied in consumption. Agricultural net exporters were found to usually be low- and lower-income countries, while net importers are found to be high-income countries. According to the driving factor analysis, high-income and low-income countries should cooperate by adjusting consumption patterns and sharing agricultural technology to alleviate the pressure from agricultural production. Our study highlights the importance of agrarian expertise sharing and the need to develop sustainable and green agricultural production.

Material flow analysis and regional greenhouse gas emissions associated to permanent magnets and batteries used in electric vehicles

Clean technologies are rapidly increasing in the last decade. In the transport sector, market share of global electric car sales has changed from 0.0 % in 2010 to 3.2 % (2.1million) in 2020, and predictions show that sales could reach near 30 % in 2030. This drastic change is mainly encouraged by environmental goals set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) expressed in CO2-eq, not emitted by electric vehicles (EVs) during the use phase. However, clean technologies might cause other impacts during manufacture and, while clearly reduce the dependency on oil, can increase the dependency on other materials. In this context, the objectives of our work are quantifying the critical raw materials needed by permanents magnets and batteries of EVs (neodymium, lithium, and cobalt); their supply risk, performing a material flow analysis; and studying their environmental impacts using the methodology “Environmentally-Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis”. This methodology is used to quantify the produced impacts and the country where the impacts are being produced, in contrast to conventional methodologies that only calculate global impacts. Therefore, environmental impacts are estimated considering different scenarios, based on environmental objectives of the European Union and China. In most scenarios China shows a key role in mining and processing of metals, being the country where major impacts are produced. Obtained results are useful to assess which environmental proposals are more effective to reduce the environmental impact of EVs and set the ground to understand the geostrategic importance of key metals used for EVs manufacture.

Shared mobility and lifestyles as mechanisms to reduce environmental impacts from passenger transportation

Despite the deployment of low- or zero-emission technologies, achieving emissions reductions in the passenger transportation sector remains challenging. Demand-side mechanisms can be instrumental in reducing environmental impacts of transportation and reconfiguring transportation systems in a way that shifts users away from private car ownership. In this article we look at the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States to quantify the environmental benefits from such shifts in passenger transportation, considering socio-technological drivers of transportation including well-being, digitalization, shared mobility, and electrification. We establish pathways for each of these countries considering their context. We frame these pathways using the avoid-shift-improve framework which shapes the scenarios that we quantify in our analysis. We use a travel demand model as an input to calculate carbon, energy, and air pollution footprints. We quantify direct emissions considering the characteristics of the private fleet and indirect using multiregional input-output analysis. The results show that target thresholds can be reached under the proposed supply and demand initiatives. For the United States, these actions are more dramatic than for the Netherlands and Sweden due to that country’s stronger car dependence. A deep social transformation is needed to make these scenarios possible and enable a shift towards public, active and shared transportation in urban areas.

Analysis on the loss path and cooperative protection of global biodiversity based on input-output model

Biodiversity plays a vital role in human survival and development. In the context of economic globalization and increasingly serious global biodiversity loss, the division of global biodiversity responsibilities and cross-regional cooperative conservation are important parts of species conservation. In this paper, an environmentally expanded multi-regional input-output analysis model is used to measure biodiversity loss footprint (overall footprint, internal footprint and external footprint), which not only covers the interference within the region, but also traces the influence out of it. In addition, structural path analysis and social network analysis were used to identify the transmission process and divide the biodiversity protection communities in various countries. The results show that: (1) There are significant differences among countries in terms of biodiversity loss footprint. The top five countries in terms of overall biodiversity loss footprint are Indonesia, China, the United States, Mexico and Brazil, but they have different impact modes on biodiversity; (2) While most of the footprint of biodiversity loss occurs within the region, more than a quarter of the footprint is due to global production chains outside the region. The study concluded that through the global production chain, species will eventually be influenced by the United States, Japan, India and China; (3) Among economic sectors, agriculture has the largest direct biodiversity footprint. Food & Beverages sector has the largest indirect biodiversity footprint; (4) Eight biodiversity protection communities have been formed around the world, including source community and mixed community of biodiversity protection, each four. Among them, the source community is represented by Indonesia, India, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand in South and Southeast Asia, while the mixed community is mainly composed of China, Japan, Cameroon and Vietnam in East Asia and South Africa. In order to protect biodiversity effectively, different strategies are proposed for different types of communities.

Consequence CO2 footprint analysis of circular economy scenarios in cities

Cities concentrate a large amount of people and activities thus being responsible for large amounts of resources being consumed which generate significant impact footprints contributing to climate change both directly and indirectly. In the meantime, circular economy is seen a promising concept to improve resource efficiency. Circular economy strategies are an emerging and important paradigm that can have an important effect in reducing CO2 emissions.This study aims at evaluating how circular economy strategies can reduce CO2 emissions in cities with different contexts to find similarities and differences between them. The studied cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, and Malmö.A scenario analysis study is done for two scenarios: 1) Business-As-Usual scenario (BAU) and 2) Circular Economy scenario (CE) from year 2017–2050, using multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis. The most CO2-intensive Exiobase sectors associated with downstream consumption in households and government were identified as CO2 emission hotspots, and emission reduction targets were identified and applied to these sectors.The main results from the study show that although Vienna and Malmö have applied sustainability strategies for quite some time, the results do not show that CE strategies work better in the European cities compared with Chinese cities. The results also suggest that the greatest potential and effectiveness in reducing consumption lies in the sectors of energy use and materials consumption for all cities. It can also be seen that CE scenarios have higher potential for CO2 emissions reduction when compared to the BAU scenarios but the reduction level in Shanghai and Malmö is weaker compared to Vienna and Beijing, which indicates the effectiveness of current CE strategies in reducing Beijing and Vienna's emissions. It also suggests that for Shanghai and Malmö, more ambitious CE strategies should be considered. Finally, comparing the distribution of emissions among the four cities it can be seen that consumption of Beijing, Shanghai and Vienna relies highly on domestic production whilst Malmö is more dependent on international production.

Analysis of embodied carbon emissions and carbon sequestration in Tibetan Plateau-Case study of Tibet and Qinghai

The Tibetan Plateau is one of the most important carbon sinks, while it is facing with huge pressure of carbon emission in the process of urbanization, and the inter-regional trade activities lead to the carbon emission structure to be more complex. To facilitate the realization of carbon neutrality, it is required to figure out the carbon sequestration capacity and the carbon emissions caused by socio-economic activities of the Tibetan Plateau. This study adopted the net primary productivity (NPP) remote estimation model to evaluate carbon sequestration capacity and utilized a multi-regional input–output analysis framework combined with a structural decomposition analysis model for embodied carbon emission evaluation of Tibet and Qinghai to identify the carbon emission characteristics in 2012 and 2017. The results reflect that Tibet had great potential for carbon neutrality, but Qinghai had a slight carbon deficit from both the production and consumption perspectives. The carbon emission flow patterns shown that Tibet was basically a net emission importer, and Qinghai mainly imported net emissions from northern China like Inner Mongolia, Henan, and Hebei, and exported emissions to southern China like Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. The energy production and supply industries were the largest carbon emission sources and the major contributors of emission growth for Tibet and Qinghai. The gross capital formation have induced about 75% of the consumption-based emissions in plateau in both 2012 and 2017. The increased emissions were mainly driven by changes in average consumption structure, which promoted the emissions increased by 34.70% and 23.21% for Tibet and Qinghai, respectively. It can be concluded that the main task to achieve the target of carbon reduction is to change the energy structure of the Tibetan Plateau into a cleaner structure to reduce dependence on high-carbon products from other provinces and promote green development all over the country.

Carbon Inequality Embodied in Inter-Provincial Trade of China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt

Regional trade leads to carbon transfer, which in turn raises the issue of carbon inequality. However, less existing research has focused on carbon inequality within megaregions. Combining multi-regional input-output analysis, carbon Gini coefficients and carbon deviation coefficients, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of carbon equity in inter-provincial trade in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) from the perspective of economic benefits and environmental pressure. The results show that: (1) Carbon emissions from the production and consumption sides of the 11 provinces in the YEB vary considerably. (2) Significant carbon inequality exists in the YEB region. This is manifested in the unequal relationship between the transfer of embodied carbon emissions and economic benefits, as well as the difference in carbon deviation coefficients. Based on the results of our research, this paper can help provide theoretical support and decision-making reference for implementing a differentiated carbon emission reduction responsibility mechanism and establishing a coordinated carbon emission reduction responsibility system.