Global warming and China’s responsibility: A view from embodied energy and CO2 emission in international trade

Abstract

Global warming and its effects have aroused intensive attention in the world. For this reason, it becomes important to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of a country. The manufacture of international trading goods requires a lot of fossil fuel, which inevitably leads to a great amount of CO2 emission. This aim of this study is to estimate the amount of energy and CO2 emission embodied in Chinese international trade so as to provide a complete view of its responsibility in global warming. This study is based on an environmentally extended input-output model by using 2002 input-output table and embodied energy and CO2 emission during 1995-2006 is estimated. Further, the tendency of Chinese international trade of carbon-intensive products is observed and the relationship between embodied energy and CO2 emission and the growth of Chinese international trade is analyzed. The estimate reveals that the embodied energy and CO2 emission increases remarkably and export-related production is the important source of Chinese energy consumption and CO2 emission.