Carbon dioxide emissions and international trade at the turn of the millennium

•We present a new dataset of CO2 emission inventories, covering 78 regions from 1997-2011.•It enables us to analyse the evolution of CO2 emissions for the 14 years since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted.•We trace emissions embodied in goods and services trade across sectors and borders along the supply chain.•Our dataset supplements geographical production-based inventories, adding final production- and consumption-based inventories.•The distribution of responsibility for emissions across countries is key to the adoption of environmental agreements.

We present a new dataset of geographical production-, final (embodied) production-, and consumption-based carbon dioxide emission inventories, covering 78 regions and 55 sectors from 1997 to 2011. We extend previous work both in terms of time span and in bridging from geographical to embodied production and, ultimately, to consumption. We analyse the recent evolution of emissions, the development of carbon efficiency of the global economy, and the role of international trade. As the distribution of responsibility for emissions across countries is key to the adoption and implementation of international environmental agreements and regulations, the final production- and consumption-based inventories developed here provide a valuable extension to more traditional geographical production-based criteria.