Three-scale input–output modeling for urban economy: Carbon emission by Beijing 2007

For urban economies, an ecological endowment embodiment analysis has to be supported by endowment intensities at both the international and domestic scales to reflect the international and domestic imports of increasing importance. A three-scale input–output modeling for an urban economy to give nine categories of embodiment fluxes is presented in this paper by a case study on the carbon dioxide emissions by the Beijing economy in 2007, based on the carbon intensities for the average world and national economies. The total direct emissions are estimated at 1.03E+08 t, in which 91.61% is energy-related emissions. By the modeling, emissions embodied in fixed capital formation amount to 7.20E+07 t, emissions embodied in household consumption are 1.58 times those in government consumption, and emissions in gross capital formation are 14.93% more than those in gross consumption. As a net exporter of carbon emissions, Beijing exports 5.21E+08 t carbon embodied in foreign imported commodities and 1.06E+08 t in domestic imported commodities, while emissions embodied in foreign and domestic imported commodities are 3.34E+07 and 1.75E+08 t respectively. The algorithm presented in this study is applicable to the embodiment analysis of other environmental resources for regional economies characteristic of multi-scales.

► A three-scale input–output model for an urban economy is presented to give nine categories of embodiment fluxes.
► A three-scale input–output analysis is made to investigate the embodied carbon emissions of Beijing economy in 2007.
► A concrete database of carbon emissions is provided for carbon reduction policy making in Beijing.