UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Allocating China's CO₂ Emissions Based on Economic Welfare Gains from Environmental Externalities

Cao, Yiyi; Qu, Shen; Zheng, Heran; Meng, Jing; Mi, Zhifu; Chen, Weiming; Wei, Yi-Ming; (2023) Allocating China's CO₂ Emissions Based on Economic Welfare Gains from Environmental Externalities. Environmental Science and Technology , 57 (20) pp. 7709-7720. 10.1021/acs.est.3c00044. Green open access

[thumbnail of Zheng_Manuscript.pdf]
Preview
Text
Zheng_Manuscript.pdf

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

To achieve carbon neutrality (i.e., net zero carbon emissions) by 2060, China must make significant changes in its socioeconomic systems, including appropriately allocating emissions responsibility. Traditional methods of delineating responsibilities (such as production-based and consumption-based accounting) can lead to double counting when applied simultaneously and therefore difficulty in determining responsibilities of different agents. An alternative approach based on economic welfare gains from environmental externalities has been refined, ensuring that the responsibilities of consumers and producers add up to the total emissions. The application of this approach to 48 countries and 31 Chinese provinces reveals that regions with less elastic supply and demand, such as Hebei in China and Russia, have higher responsibilities. Furthermore, larger externalities associated with unitary product value shift the burden of obligations from producers to consumers. Regions with high levels of wealth and carbon-intensive imports, such as Zhejiang and Guangdong in China, as well as the United States, typically have higher consumer-based accounting (CBA) emissions than production-based accounting (PBA) emissions and, as a result, redistributed responsibilities between PBA and CBA emissions. The new distribution results vary significantly from PBA or CBA emissions, indicating opportunities for more comprehensive and accessible policy goals.

Type: Article
Title: Allocating China's CO₂ Emissions Based on Economic Welfare Gains from Environmental Externalities
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c00044
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c00044
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: carbon mitigation, economic welfare, emission responsibility, externalities, input−output analysis, price elasticities
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10169960
Downloads since deposit
0Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item