Carbon emission efficiency of China’s industry sectors: From the perspective of embodied carbon emissions

et al. 2021

IJERPH

With the steady growth of CO2 emissions embedded in trade, the driving forces of emissions have attracted extensive attention. Most of the literature has verified a bundle of the influential factors; however, further analyses are necessary to understand the predominant and heterogeneous driving factors in different economies and/or industries. Accordingly, by applying the multiregional input–output (MRIO) model, this article firstly evaluates the embodied carbon emissions of China’s export from 1992 to 2020 in total volumes and by 14 industries. Then, the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) estimations allow us to discover that urbanization, technology update and gross domestic product (GDP) are the leading three prioritizing factors in generating China’s export emissions. Interestingly, this paper discovers that raising the proportion of female parliamentarians contributes to an abatement of emissions. Furthermore, the empirical results suggest that the heterogeneities of those factors do exist among industries. For example, the percentage of females in parliaments turns out to have a larger effect among labor-intensive industries only. In facing with rapid globalization and economic development of China, this paper provides important policy implications towards specific industries in terms of mitigating trade emissions. It guides policy-makers to achieve “carbon neutrality” by avoiding carbon leakage in net-export countries such as China.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterogeneous Driving Factors of Carbon Emissions Embedded in China’s Export: An Application of the LASSO Model

et al. 2021

IJERPH

“…The carbon emission of a product from its production process to consumption is usually called "embodied carbon emission" (Gao et al, 2021). Embodied carbon emissions are placed in the "black box" of an economic system and can be quantified only with the help of environmental economic tools.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Transmission Paths of Aggregate Embodied Carbon Emission Influencing Factors in China

et al. 2022

Front. Energy Res.

Carbon emissions, being embedded in sectorial production chains, need to be reduced through targeted carbon emission reduction strategies. For such a reason, it is urgent to assess the contributions of different influencing factors among different sectors for different supply chains. Focused on China, being the world’s largest carbon emitter, this paper uses the latest 2018 China’s input-output table to assess different factors, at sectoral scale, related to embodied carbon emissions. The analysis proved that the total final use factor prompted the largest emission growth, while the input-output structure factor inhibited the emission increase significantly. The gross fixed capital formation category was the largest contributor to aggregate embodied carbon emission growth, followed by urban consumption and export categories. The construction was identified as a key sector for its embodied carbon emission, the most relevant intermediate inputs to construction sector are the manufacture of non-metallic mineral products, the smelting and rolling of metals, and the production and supply of electric power and heat power sectors. Results indicate that, in the case of China, low-carbon building materials should be favored in the future. Meanwhile, energy-saving should be promoted among urban residents to increase the effectiveness of carbon emissions reduction strategies.

“…Liu et al, 2017;F. Luo et al, 2020), the allocation of electricity carbon emission rights (Gadre & Anandarajah, 2019; L. R. Zhang et al, 2018), electricity efficiency of carbon emissions (Gao et al, 2020;Y. Y. Jiang et al, 2019), and low-carbon electricity development (Cao et al, 2019;Hu et al, 2020), laying a foundation for the indepth study of carbon emissions from electricity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

China's carbon emissions from the electricity sector: Spatial characteristics and interregional transfer

Fan

Wang

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

2021

As a major carbon emitter, the electricity sector is crucial to the realization of China's emission reduction objectives. Existing studies focus mostly on the influencing factors, emission efficiency and low carbon development of carbon emissions in the electricity sector. Missing from the literature is an analysis of spatial characteristics of carbon emissions and the embodied carbon emission transfer caused by the separation of electricity production and consumption, which is the basis for assigning the responsibility for emission reduction. Thirty provinces in China were taken as research objects, and Moran's I index was adopted to analyze the spatial characteristics of the electricity sector's carbon emissions and carbon emission intensity. Based on multiregional input-output tables, we compared the transfer situation of China's provincial electricity carbon emissions in 2010 and 2015. The results demonstrate that, from 2010 to 2015, the electricity carbon emissions in 20 provinces increased, whereas the carbon emission intensity in 21 provinces decreased. Carbon emissions and carbon emission intensity of electricity in most provinces demonstrate positive spatial clustering characteristics. The total amount of carbon emission transfer in the electricity sector increased from 421.22 million tons in 2010 to 581.369 million tons in 2015, the number of net transfers out of areas increased from 13 to 15, and the number of net transfers into areas decreased from 16 to 15. The active degree of carbon emission transfer reveals the eastern region > the central region > the western region. Different emission reduction policies should be formulated based on the difference in resource endowment between the north and south. Provinces that transferred out large amounts of electricity carbon emissions should take greater responsibility for emission reduction.