CO2 embodied in China's foreign trade 2007 with discussion for global climate policy

This article estimated the carbon emissions embodied in China's foreign trade in 2007 with an input-output method. The results showed that China was a net exporter of at least 484.18MT carbon emissions in 2007, which accounted for 8.59% of total on a production basis. In total emissions, imported carbon accounted for 21.97% while exported carbon occupied 30.56%. In terms of sectors, Manufacture of Textile was the biggest net exporter, which was followed by Smelting and Pressing of Ferrous Metals, Manufacture of Metal Products, and so on. In terms of trading partners, Hong Kong was the biggest recipient of exported emissions of mainland China, which was followed by the US, Netherlands, UK, Singapore, and so on. Considering that a large amount of goods exported from mainland China to Hong Kong would be re-exported to the US, the emissions ultimately embodied in China-US trade would be greater than the estimation. Given that current production-based mechanism for allocating carbon abatement burden in international climate regime fails to reflect the complexities of international trade, the sacrifices that net carbon exporters are making and the actual environmental impact of consumption activities, BEET must be paid more attention if future policies would to be equitable and able to encourage active participations. Actually, so far, the seeking of a global solution for combating climate change because of its global impact seems to be prone to problems such as international conflict, carbon leakage, and free riding, etc., and current progress in slowing GHG emissions is actually arriving via fragmented and multispeed efforts, we may not just waiting for a global solution for the problem. Instead, actions at multiple levels with active oversight of local, regional, and national stakeholders, should be promoted. (c) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.