China’s provincial CO2 emissions embodied in international and interprovincial trade

Trades create a mechanism of embodied CO2 emissions transfer among regions, causing distortion on the total emissions. As the world’s second largest economy, China has a large scale of trade, which results in the serious problem of embodied CO2 emissions transfer. This paper analyzes the characteristics of China’s CO2 emissions embodied in international and interprovincial trade from the provincial perspective. The multi-regional Input–Output Model is used to clarify provincial CO2 emissions from geographical and sectoral dimensions, including 30 provinces and 28 sectors. Two calculating principles (production accounting principle and consumption accounting principle, Munksgaard and Pedersen, 2001) are applied. The results show that for international trade, the eastern area accounts for a large proportion in China’s embodied CO2 emissions. The sectors as net exporters and importers of embodied CO2 emissions belong to labor-intensive and energy-intensive industries, respectively. For interprovincial trade, the net transfer of embodied CO2 emissions is from the eastern area to the central area, and energy-intensive industries are the main contributors. With the largest amount of direct CO2 emissions, the eastern area plays an important role in CO2 emissions reduction. The central and western areas need supportive policies to avoid the transfer of industries with high emissions.

► China’s embodied CO2 emissions are analyzed from the provincial perspective.
► Eastern provinces have larger CO2 emissions embodied in international trade.
► Embodied CO2 emissions are mainly transferred from eastern area to central area.
► Coastal provinces play important roles in CO2 emissions reduction.
► Inland provinces need supportive policies on emissions reduction.