The flow of embodied carbon through the economies of China, the European Union, and the United States

Abstract

Abstract Indirect CO2 emissions are gaining increasing interests in addition to direct CO2 emissions, as policy makers become more aware of the possibilities for structural and technical change, sometimes resulting from policies, to move CO2 emissions along supply chains. An analysis of the composition of emissions and carbon efficiency of production and their development over time may inform the formulation of demand-side and supply-side solutions for emission reduction over the entire life-cycle. In addition, understanding of emissions embodied in trade (EET) at intermediate and final stages is crucial for allocation of emission responsibilities in a fair manner. Hence, we account for global direct and indirect intermediate and final CO2 emissions using the global, multiregional input-output model EXIOBASE 3.3. We present results for the flow of embodied carbon through the economies of 49 countries and regions using an interactive visualization and provide a comparative analysis of China, the US, and the EU. It shows that China has undergone rapid, continuous increase in both intermediate and final indirect CO2 emissions compared to the other two economies from 1995 to 2015, to 26.1\u2009Pg and 11.0\u2009Pg respectively. Emission intensities in China are on average 3.7 times of the US and 2.4 times of the EU in the year 2015, implying the possibility of further reducing emission by efficiency improvement and fuel switching. CO2 EETs of intermediate production by sectors in the three economies are also reported.