Single-region Input-output Model Research Articles

Embodied energy use of China's megacities: A comparative study of Beijing and Shanghai

Previous studies presenting city energy-use profiles generally disregard indirect energy use across global supply chains. Moreover, the distinct energy-use patterns of China's megacities remain unclear due to various urban functions and development strategies associated with urbanization. Therefore, a multi-scale single-region input-output model is devised to depict energy-use patterns in two representative Chinese megacities—Beijing and Shanghai. This model highlights the distinct upstream sources of city energy use, elucidating regional-international connections. The distinct evolutionary features of the two cities' energy-use structures are presented from a consumption-based perspective. The results show that the growth of Beijing and Shanghai depend heavily on embodied energy resources from other domestic or foreign regions. Further, as Beijing is the country's political center, a considerable amount of its energy use is attributed to government activities. In contrast, 6.05% of the energy consumption in Shanghai, China's financial center, depends on foreign energy sources, whereas the corresponding value in Beijing is only 4.2%. In terms of time-series evolutionary features, the growth rate of Beijing's energy use is notably lower than that of Shanghai due to different development modes during 2002–2012. Comparing these two typical cities' energy-use profiles highlights the urgent need for globally-oriented inclusive governance, and energy conservation policies based on distinct city functions and development plans.

China's CO2 emissions embodied in fixed capital formation and its spatial distribution.

This study aims to measure China's CO2 emissions embodied in fixed capital formation (FCF) from 2007 to 2017 by using both a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model and a single-region input-output model (SRIO). Then decoupling analysis was performed for uncovering the relationship between embodied CO2 emissions and added values at provincial level. Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method was further conducted to identify driving factors underlying the growth of embodied CO2 emissions. Results show that CO2 emission from FCF doubled from 2436 million tons (Mt) in 2007 to 4820 Mt in 2012, and increased slightly to 5089 Mt in 2017. Electric power, gas, and water production and supply sector (EGW) and manufacturing industry (MFI) sector were two dominant emitters from supply-side perspective, while construction (CON) was the largest demanding sector driving the embodied emissions from upstream sectors. From geographical point of view, northern provinces were the major inter-regional net exporters of embodied CO2 emissions, while eastern and southern provinces were net importers of embodied CO2 emissions. Based on such results, policy recommendations are proposed considering the relation between supply and demand sector, inter-provincial CO2 emission transfer, and local economic development to mitigate CO2 emissions from China's FCF.

Trade Openness and Carbon Leakage: Empirical Evidence from China’s Industrial Sector

China is a large import and export economy in global terms, and the carbon dioxide emissions and carbon leakage arising from trade have great significance for China’s foreign trade and its economy. On the basis of trade data for China’s 20 industrial sectors, we first built a panel data model to test the effect of trade on carbon dioxide emissions and the presence of carbon leakage for all industrial sectors. Second, we derived a single-region input–output model for open economies based on the industrial sectors’ diversity and carbon dioxide emissions, and performed an empirical test. We estimated the net carbon intensity embodied in export, which is 0.237tCO2/ten thousand RMB, to divide all sectors (ACSs) into high-carbon sectors (HCSs) and low-carbon sectors (LCSs). The results show that higher trade openness leads to a reduction in the intensity of CO2 emissions and gross emissions and that there are obvious structural differences in different sectors with different carbon emission intensity. The coefficient of trade openness for LCSs is −0.073 and is statistically significant at the 1% level, so higher trade openness for LCSs leads to a reduction in the CO2 emissions intensity. However, the coefficient for HCSs is 0.117 and is statistically significant at the 10% level, indicating that higher trade openness increases the CO2 emissions’ intensity for HCSs. The difference is that higher trade openness in LCSs can help reduce the CO2 emissions’ intensity without the problem of carbon leakage and with the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), whereas there is no EKC for HCSs and carbon leakage may happen. We introduced dummy variables and found that a “pollution haven” effect exists in HCSs. The test results in HCSs and LCSs are exactly the opposite of each other, which shows that the carbon leakage of ACSs cannot be determined. The message that can be drawn for policy makers is that China does not need to worry about the adverse impact on the environment of trade opening up and should, in fact, increase the opening up of trade, while becoming acclimatized to environmental regulation of a new trade mode and new standards. This will help amplify the favorable impact of trade opening up on the environment and improve China’s international reputation. The policies related to trade should encourage structural adjustment between the sectors via the formulation of differential policies and impose a restraint on sectors that have high levels of CO2 emissions embodied in export.

Impact of financial development on trade-embodied carbon dioxide emissions: Evidence from 30 provinces in China

Abstract The literature on financial development and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is extensive. However, previous studies have not found the impact of financial development on trade-embodied CO2 emissions. Therefore, we build a dynamic panel model based on the extension of the STIRPAT model to verify the overall and indirect impact of financial development. We calculate trade-embodied CO2 emissions of 30 provinces in China in 2000–2014 using the single region input-output model (SRIO) by eliminating the impact of imported intermediate products on CO2 emissions embodied in exports (EXC). In order to measure financial development in China more comprehensively, we use financial scale development, financial efficiency and financialization to define it. Results show that the environmental Kuznets curve is confirmed at the level of China's provinces. In most provinces, EXC began to increase in 2006 and decline in 2010, but CO2 embodied in net exports (EC) began to decrease in 2005 and increase in 2010. The results of overall impact indicate that different financial development indicators have different effects on EC. But they all reduce EXC. The results of indirect impact through imitation innovation (IC) and independent research and development (RD) find that financial scale development increases EXC, however, financial efficiency and financialization decreases EXC. Financial scale development and financial efficiency can decrease EC, but financialization increases EC. The results of indirect impact through FDI show that financial scale development and financial efficiency can decrease EXC and EC. Financialization decreases EXC, but the impact of financialization on EC has obvious threshold characteristics. When the level of financialization is lower than the threshold value, financialization will reduce EC. There is regional heterogeneity in the impact of financial development on trade-embodied CO2 emissions. The conclusions of this paper are of great reference value for improving the level of financial development so as to realize the development of China's green trade.

Compilation of an Embodied CO2 Emission Inventory for China Using 135-Sector Input-Output Tables

A high-quality carbon dioxide (CO2) inventory is the cornerstone of climate change mitigation. Most of the previously reported embodied CO2 inventories in China have no more than 42 sectors, and this limitation may introduce apparent inaccuracy into the analysis at the sector level. To improve the quality of input-output (IO)-based CO2 inventories for China, we propose a practical energy allocation approach to link the energy statistics to the 135-sector IO tables for China and compiled a detailed embodied CO2 intensity and inventory for 2007 using a single-region IO model. Interpretation of embodied CO2 intensities by fuel category, direct requirement, and total requirement in the sectors were conducted to identify, from different perspectives, the significant contributors. The total embodied CO2 emissions in 2007 was estimated to be 7.1 Gt and was separated into the industrial sector and final demand sector. Although the total CO2 estimations by the 42-sector and 135-sector analyses are equivalent, the allocations in certain groups of sectors differ significantly. Our compilation methodologies address indirect environmental impacts from industrial sectors, including the public utility and tertiary sectors. This method of interpretation could be utilized for better communication with stakeholders.

Estimation of China's Embodied CO2 Emissions during 2000–2009

AbstractThe problem of CO2 embodied in international trade has attracted increasing attention in China. To analyze this issue, the present paper directly calculates emission factors for 15 industries in 2002, 2005 and 2007. We then examine a consumption‐based system and a single‐region input–output model to estimate China's embodied emissions during 2000–2009. Our results show that, when a consumption‐based system is adopted, China's emissions are lower than those reported by some international organizations. The rapid growth in China's exports is a key determinant of China's rising total emissions. All countries should strengthen their cooperation in improving their current greenhouse gas inventories. Furthermore, China needs to encourage trade in low‐carbon products and technology.

IMPROVING THE COMPLETENESS OF PRODUCT CARBON FOOTPRINTS USING A GLOBAL LINK INPUT–OUTPUT MODEL: THE CASE OF JAPAN

This paper is concerned with the main activities of Japan's ‘Disclosure of CO2 emissions’ programme, aimed at illustrating the CO2 emissions associated with consumer products as a ‘carbon footprint’ (CF). Although the current, provisional guidelines for calculating product carbon footprints specify that only the bottom-up approach is to be used for this purpose, this paper presents useful applications of input–output analysis that can improve the reliability of the method considerably, by taking full advantage of the strengths of input–output analysis. To this end, we first estimated the global carbon footprint (GCF) of food and consumables in Japan, using a global link input–output (GLIO) model comprising 804 economic sectors in Japan and 230 foreign countries and regions. By visualizing the GCF on a world map, the global distribution (including Middle East and African countries) of the induced CO2 emissions of each of the Japanese sectors were identified. To investigate the scope for reducing the data collection burden for CF practitioners, GCFs were compared with CFs obtained using a single-region input–output model. This showed that there are certain commodity groups with a CF equating to 70% to over 90% of the corresponding GCF, even if the imported goods used for producing a Japanese domestic product are considered environmentally equivalent to their domestically produced counterparts. Furthermore, it was identified which data should preferably be collected by the bottom-up approach to secure CO2 emissions coverage greater than a certain predefined level and keep data and labour costs at a minimum.

CO2 Multipliers in Multi-region Input-Output Models

In order to achieve equitable reduction targets, international trade has to be taken into account when assessing nations' responsibility for abating climate change. Especially for open economies such as Denmark, greenhouse gases embodied in internationally traded commodities can have a considerable influence on the national 'greenhouse gas responsibility'. We set up a five-region input-output model including Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway in order to calculate CO2 multipliers and trade balances. We investigate multidirectional feedback between these countries, and hence the error inherent in a single-region input-output model. We also examine the effect of aggregation on the model results. In the case of Denmark, an 11 Mt CO2 trade surplus resulting from a single-region model turns into balance when multidirectional trade is considered. Moreover, aggregated models are likely to result in significant errors. Therefore, both the type and the degree of aggregation used for modelling CO2 responsibilities could have a major bearing in international negotiations.

Estimating State-Level Input-Output Relationships from U.S. Multiregional Data

State input-output coefficient matrices can be obtained from the data embedded in the U.S. Multiregional Input-output Model (MRIO). Individual cells and multipliers in the survey-based tables for Kansas and West Virginia are compared to their counterparts extracted from the MRIO model. The MRIO data, although by no means perfect, are found to be much better than has previously been suggested. Evidence also is presented indicating that for certain kinds of questions a single-region input-output model may be adequate, that is, that interregional feedbacks will be negligible.