Mengyao Han, Bo Zhang, Yuqing Zhang, and Chenghe Guan. 2019. “
Agricultural CH4 and N2O emissions of major economies: Consumption-vs. production-based perspectives.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 210, Pp. 276-286.
Publisher's VersionAbstractAgriculture is one of the most important sectors for global anthropogenic methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. While much attention has been paid to production-side agricultural non-CO2 greenhouse gas (ANGHG) emissions, less is known about the emissions from the consumption-based perspective. This paper aims to explore the characteristics of agricultural CH4 and N2O emissions of global major economies by using the latest emission data from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) and the recently available global multi-regional input-output model from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD). The results show that in 2014, the 42 major economies together accounted for 60.7% and 65.0% of global total direct and embodied ANGHG emissions, respectively. The consumption-based ANGHG emissions in the US, Japan, and the EU were much higher than their production-based emissions, while the converse was true for Brazil, Australia, and India. The global-average embodied ANGHG emissions per capita was 0.7 t CO2-eq, but major developing countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Mexico were all below this average value. We find that the total transfer of embodied ANGHG emissions via international trade was 622.4 Mt CO2-eq, 11.9% of the global total. China was the largest exporter of embodied ANGHG emissions, while the US was the largest importer. Most developed economies were net importers of embodied emissions. Mexico-US, China-US, China-EU, China-Japan, China-Russia, Brazil-EU, India-EU and India-US formed the main bilateral trading pairs of embodied emission flows. Examining consumption-based inventories can be useful for understanding the impacts of final demand and international trade on agricultural GHG emissions and identifying appropriate mitigation potentials along global supply chains.
Ying Wang, Bin Chen, Chenghe Guan, and Bo Zhang. 2019. “
Evolution of methane emissions in global supply chains during 2000-2012.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 150, 104414.
Publisher's VersionAbstractReduction of methane emissions (CH4) plays an important role in addressing global climate change. Most previous studies have focused on the direct CH4 emissions of economies, but overlooked the upstream CH4 emissions along global supply chains induced by the final consumption of economies. Using a global multi-regional input-output analysis, this study aims to explore the evolution of CH4 emissions embodied in international trade and final consumption in major economies during 2000–2012. The results show that China, the EU, USA, India and Brazil were the top five economies with high volumes of consumption-based CH4 emissions from 2000 to 2012. In particular, China’s consumption-based CH4 emissions showed an observable growth trend, while the EU, the USA and Japan showed a downward trend. It’s estimated that growing amounts of CH4 emissions (i.e., the volume increase from 77.1 Mt in 2000 to 95.9 Mt in 2012) were transferred globally via international trade, primarily as exports from China, Russia and other large developing economies to consumers in major developed economies. Russia–EU, China–USA and China–EU formed the main bilateral trading pairs of embodied emission flows. Further analysis found that per capita consumption-based CH4 emissions was closely related to their per capita GDP. Quantifying the CH4 emissions embodied in trade and final demand of major economies can provide important basis for understanding economy-wide emission drivers to design global and regional CH4 reduction scheme from a consumer perspective.
Wenjie Tian, Xudong Wu, Rong Ma, and Bo Zhang. 2019. “
Quantifying global CH4 and N2O footprints.” Journal of Environmental Management, 251.
AbstractThis study aims to quantify global CH4 and N2O footprints in 2012 in terms of 181 economies and 20 world regions based on the official national emission accounts from the UNFCCC database and the global multi-region input-output accounts from the EORA database. Global total CH4 and N2O emissions increased by 15.0% in 2012 compared to 1990, mainly driven by increasing demands of agricultural and energy products. Mainland China, Western Europe, the USA, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa were identified as the largest five CH4 footprint contributors (55.6% of the global total), while Mainland China, the USA, Western Europe, Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa as the largest N2O footprint contributors (59.2% of the global total). In most developed economies, the CH4 and N2O footprints were much higher than their emissions on the production side, but opposite picture is observed in emerging economies. 36.4% and 24.8% of the global CH4 and N2O emissions in 2012 were associated with international trade, respectively. Substantial energy-related CH4 and agricultural CH4 and N2O emissions were transferred from developed countries to developing countries. Several nations within Kyoto targets have reduced their CH4 and N2O emissions significantly between 1990 and 2012, but the generally-believed success is challenged when viewing from the consumption side. Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Middle East and India witnessed prominent increase of CH4 and N2O footprints in the same period. The structure and spatial patterns of global CH4 and N2O footprints shed light on the role of consumption-side actions and international cooperation for future non-CO2 GHG emission reduction.