Measuring the Impacts of International Trade on Carbon Emissions Intensity: A Global Value Chain Perspective

摘要

Global international trade has had a tremendous impact on global economic development and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. By making the link between embodied CO2 emissions and the global value chain in the context of global multiregional input-output models, this study constructs a macro carbon trade intensity index to measure the carbon efficiency of international trade. Empirical results on 14 major economies from 1995 to 2009 are presented as follows: (1) The characteristics of the carbon trade vary between developing economies (or transition economies) and developed economies. On average, developing and transition economies have an export carbon intensity (ECI) 3.5 times that of their import carbon intensity (ICI), whereas the latter have an ICI 2.0 times that of their ECI; (2) The three carbon intensity indices in almost all economies decreased compared with 1995; however, the degree of reduction vary from 2% to 52%; (3) China's ECIs showed little change compared with those of India. Russia's ECIs were higher than those of China and India. In addition, countries with higher intensity are generally developing and transition economies.