Research Publications

This study examines the annual CO₂ emissions embodied in China's exports from 2002 to 2008 using environmental input–output analysis. Four driving forces, including emission intensity, economic production structure, export composition, and total export volume, are compared for their contributions to the increase of embodied CO₂ emissions using a structural decomposition analysis (SDA) technique. Although offset by the decrease in emission intensity, the increase of embodied CO₂ emissions was driven by changes of the other three factors. In particular, the change of the export composition was the largest driver, primarily due to the increasing fraction of metal products in China's total export. Relevant policy implications and future research directions are discussed at the end of the paper.