Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 8 • Number 3 • 22nd February 2008

New Study Links Fifth of Global Carbon Emissions to Trade

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A new study has added data to a growing body of literature on the so-called ‘embodiment’ of carbon in international trade.

Highlighting the role of international trade in the carbon emissions profiles of various countries, the study entitled “CO2 Embodied in International Trade with Implications for Global Climate Policy” concluded that international trade embodies approximately twenty percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Responding to the new findings, Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution of Washington noted that, “if you’re trying to figure out an international regime for managing carbon, especially if you have one like Kyoto… there are a number of ways that a country that faces binding limits might appear to reduce its emissions by essentially [importing] emissions from another country.” This is particularly the case for developed countries that are net importers of carbon dioxide emissions, which is being fuelled by their consumption patterns and the outsourcing of production to developing countries.

To eliminate carbon leakage problems affiliated with climate mitigation strategies premised on production-based emissions inventories, and to link a countries’ consumption with the global production system, the study advocated a switch away from production-based emissions inventories, as currently used in the Kyoto Protocol, to a consumption-based emissions inventory.

Overall, the authors - Glen Peters and Edgar Hertwich at Industrial Ecology Programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology - stressed that “a better understanding of the role that trade plays in a country’s economic and environmental development will help design more effective and participatory climate policy post-Kyoto.”

In related news, another recent study published by WWF Norway and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked at the link between Norwegian consumption and Chinese pollution as an example of how OECD imports generate carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries. The study found that Norway’s carbon footprint has increased by 65 percent from 2001 to 2006 in developing countries, with the largest footprint and growth in China. It also found that imports from China have lead to “more than 2 million tonnes of annual carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants in China.” One of the recommendations was for Norway to take “an amount equal to the cost of its carbon dioxide footprint in developing countries” and place it “in a pilot climate venture capital fund providing risk capital to new companies focusing on providing low carbon solutions, in order to stimulate innovation.”

Additional information

Copies of “CO2 Embodied in International Trade with Implications for Global Climate Policy,” can be accessed at http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/esthag/asap/pdf/es072023k.pdf

The study “”Norwegian Consumption, Chinese pollution: An example of how OECD imports generate CO2 emissions in developing countries,” is available at http://www.ntnu.no/eksternweb/multimedia/archive/00030/Norwegian_Consumptio_30439a.pdf

ICTSD reporting; “Carbon embodied in international trade,” ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ONLINE, 30 January 2008.