National statistics designed to determine domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions usually do not take into account the embodiment of carbon in international trade flows, thus failing to reflect that countries indirectly emit GHG by importing non-energy goods. As a matter of fact, by becoming more services oriented and importing increasing quantities of energy-intensive goods from developing nations, developed nations are transferring part of their carbon emissions to developing economies, with a consequent impact on the global environment. The reduction of carbon emissions in developed nations due to lower energy intensities is of no help for the global warming problem if it is accompanied by increases in carbon emissions in developing nations caused by exports to developed notions. This paper estimates the amount of energy and carbon embodied in the non-energy exports and imports of Brazil for the period 1970-1993 in order to determine whether or not the international trade of carbon rich products is a problem worth addressing in the case of Brazil. The estimates show that the carbon content of exports was considerably higher than that of imports from 1980 on. In 1990 the difference, expressed as a fraction of Brazil's total carbon emissions, was 11.4 percent, or some 8.3 million tonnes of carbon. The significance of these findings for Brazil's future energy and emissions policies is discussed.
