China's carbon footprint based on input-output table series: 1992-2020

Abstract

Reducing carbon emissions is a major concern for China's future. This paper explores the embodied carbon footprint of Chinese final demand from the point of view of industries. It uses the Matrix Transformation Technique (MTT) to update the input-output table series from 1992 to 2020 in China. Then, we measure the embodied carbon emissions for the period 1992-2020 from 29 industry producers to the final demand, covering urban and rural residential consumption, government consumption, fixed capital formation, and net exports. The results show that construction, other services, wholesale, retail trade, accommodation and catering, industrial machinery and equipment, transport, storage and postal services, and manufacture of foods and tobacco are the industries with the greatest carbon emissions from producers, while fixed capital formation and urban consumption are the largest emitters from the perspective of final demand. The embodied carbon emission multipliers for most of the industries are decreasing, while the total carbon emissions are increasing each year. The ratio of emissions from residential consumption in terms of total emissions is decreasing. Each industry has a different main final demand-driven influencing factor on emission and, for each type of final demand, there are different industries with higher emissions.