Assessing Environmental Impacts Embodied in Manufacturing and Labor Input for the China−U.S. Trade

Abstract

Previous studies on environmental impacts embodied in trade have paid little attention to the impacts of labor input, or environmental overhead of labor input (EOLI). EOLI occurs to support lifestyles both in the purchase of goods and services and in the consumption of fuels and electricity by workers. This research investigates both supply chain manufacturing and EOLI energy use and carbon dioxide (CO(2)) emissions embodied in the 2002 China-U.S. trade. EOLI is substantial in scale: 24% of manufacturing energy in the U.S. and 6% for China. The higher share of EOLI in the U.S. is the result of higher energy use to support worker lifestyles. Analysis shows China's EOLI is dominated by the manufacturing of products consumed by workers, while EOLI on the U.S. side is primarily from workers' direct consumption. The total manufacturing and EOLI energy and CO(2) embodied in the eastbound trade from China to the U.S. are 6.5 exajoules (EJ) of energy (6% EOLI) and 440 million tons (Mt) of CO(2) (8% EOLI). The total manufacturing and EOLI energy and CO(2) embodied in the westbound trade from the U.S. to China are 424 petajoules (PJ) of energy (19% EOLI) and 25.3 Mt of CO(2) (21% EOLI).

Development of Social Intensity Database Using Asian International Input–Output Table for Social Life Cycle Assessment

“…Based on a wage rate in 2005 of China of about US $2200/person/year [42,43], it takes approximately 1 million full-time equivalent (FTE) workers to generate US $2200 million of income. When comparing Japan as an exporter of labor to the USA, the same number of employees generated an income of US $35000 million (a wage rate of Japan about US $35,000/person/year) [44,45]. Thus, Japanese employees generated an income estimated at 16 times of Chinese employees.…”

Carbon footprint of laptops for export from China: empirical results and policy implications

“…The surge in China's exports has been partially blamed for this increase in emissions (Michieka et al, 2013). Facing both international pressure to curb its CO 2 releases and domestic complaints about great air pollution, China must reduce its CO 2 emissions embodied in exports (Xu et al, 2010; and implement related policies, as has been widely discussed (Pan et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008). The Chinese government frequently adjusts its foreign trade policy (for example, by imposing export restrictions on energy-intensive industries), and the development of a lowcarbon economy has been established as a target for guiding the rational development of export industries (Cui et al, 2015).…”

“…It is also a carbon-sensitive sector that produces 0.25% more carbon emissions for every 1% increase in output (Liu and Lu, 2010). Within this sector, computer exports account for approximately 15e30% of the emissions resulting from China's exports (Xu et al, 2010. Cui et al, 2015.…”

“…The most common methodology used to estimate the emissions associated with international trade is the top-down IO-LCA. The MIOT and GTWP databases have been widely used to calculate carbon emissions embedded in international trade at the national and supra-national levels Xu et al, 2010;Skelton et al, 2011;Su et al, 2011;Lindner et al, 2012). However, this method has certain shortcomings, including its inability to account for the differences in technological level and industrial structure between importing and exporting countries.…”

Identifying the Substance Flow of Metals Embedded in Japanese International Trade by Use of Waste Input-Output Material Flow Analysis (WIO-MFA) Model

“…see Hertwich and Peters, 1) Guo et al, 2) Weber et al, 3) Xu et al, 4) and Weinzettel et al 5) ). However, detailed material flow analysis (MFA) studies of the materials embedded in foreign trade flows are rare.…”