China's foreign trade and climate change: A case study of CO2 emissions

Yan, Yulong; Yang, Laike

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2009.09.025

Cited by 284 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The drive for cheap production is not always congruent with the triple bottom line of sustainable development, but quite the opposite: there are examples of well-established companies that have struggled with environmental and social norms in low-cost manufacturing countries [60][61][62][63]. For instance China, one sourcing country also in our case study, is well-known for low-cost manufacturing, but also for social and environmental problems related to rapid industrialisation and weak enforcement of social and environmental regulations [64][65][66]. Similar challenges are related to raw material extraction, as well as end-of-life solutions.…”

Section: Pitfallsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential and Pitfalls of Frugal Innovation in the Water Sector: Insights from Tanzania to Global Value Chains

Hyvärinen¹,

Keskinen²,

Varis³

2016

Sustainability

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Abstract:Water is perhaps the most intertwined, and basic, resource on our planet. Nevertheless, billions face water-related challenges, varying from lack of water and sanitation services to hindrances on livelihoods and socio-economic activities. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the broad role that water has for development, and also call for the private sector to participate in solving these numerous development challenges. This study looks into the potential of frugal innovations as a means for the private sector to engage in water-related development challenges. Our findings, based on a case study and literature review, indicate that frugal innovations have potential in this front due to their focus on affordable, no-frills solutions. However, we also recognize pitfalls related to frugal innovations in the water sector. Although the innovations would, in principle, be sustainable, deficiencies related to scale and institutional structures may emerge. These deficiencies are linked to the importance of water in a variety of processes, both natural and manmade, as well as to the complexity of global production-consumption value chains. Increasing the innovations' sustainability impact requires broader acknowledgement of the underlying value chains and their diverse links with water. A holistic view on water can mitigate water-related business risks while increasing wellbeing on an individual level.

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Section: Pitfallsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential and Pitfalls of Frugal Innovation in the Water Sector: Insights from Tanzania to Global Value Chains

Hyvärinen¹,

Keskinen²,

Varis³

2016

Sustainability

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“…China's position has been summarized by MA Kai, the minister of NDRC, as follows (Yan and Yang, 2009): first, the country has low per-capita emissions; second, it contributes a small amount to cumulative emissions; third, limits on China's CO 2 emissions hamper economic development; and finally, the CO 2 emissions included in Chinese production for export should be taken into account, as they partly result from relocation of manufacturing to China. The latter point is noteworthy and receives attention, for example in a comparison of 2007 figures which show that US emissions created by manufacturing goods exported to China amounted to 39 million tons of CO 2 , while China's emissions created by manufacturing goods exported to the US was 1.4 billion tonnes of CO 2 (Crooks and Romei, 2009).…”

Section: China's Position On Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Around 3,357 million tonnes of CO 2 emissions were embodied in China's exports and emissions avoided by imports amounted to 2,333 million tons, with net exports of China's emissions thus 1,024 million tonnes, accounting for 18.8% of domestic production. Similarly, Yan and Yang (2009) estimated the amount of CO 2 embodied in China's foreign trade during 1997-2007, and found that 10.03%-26.54% of China's CO 2 emissions was produced for export purposes, while CO 2 emissions in China's imports accounted for only 4.4% in 1997 and 9.05% in 2007. The rest of the world had avoided emissions of 150.18 Mt CO 2 in 1997 as a result of importing goods from China, rather than manufacturing the same type and quantity of goods domestically.…”

Section: China's Position On Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of Chinese policies and governance structures on environment, energy and climate

Tsang

Kolk

2010

Env Pol Gov

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Although a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol has not materialised yet, the 2009 Copenhagen meeting underlined the importance of China in international debates on climate and energy. This is not only based on China's current climate emissions, but also on its expected energy use and economic growth. Within China, climate issues have, like environmental pollution more generally, received increasing government and societal attention, but so has energy -topics that relate to one other but also have different priorities and actor interests behind them. However, while climate change has become more prominent, as shown in the targets included in the current five-year plan, its institutional embeddedness in relation to particularly energy issues has received limited attention. This paper aims to help shed some light on how Chinese policies and governance structures on energy, climate and environment have evolved, particularly considering the roles of national and provincial authorities. Administrative structures and policymaking processes turn out to be very complex, with a range of units and bodies at different levels with distinct responsibilities as well as inter-linkages. Moreover, tensions and conflicts can be found regarding climate change and environmental policies on the one hand, and prevailing objectives to further economic development, on the other. Energy policies serve the same goals, with climate change being most often operationalized in terms of energy conservation.

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“…Shui and Harriss (2006) find that around 10% of China's CO 2 emissions are due to its exports to the United States. Similarly, Weber et al (2008) and Yunfeng and Laike (2010) find that around 20% of the China's CO 2 emissions were due to its exports to other countries. Because of the mechanisms mentioned above, it is crucial to analyze the overall air and water pollution, rather than analyzing individual country improvements or deteriorations alone, something that we achieve in this paper applying second-order SD testing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Assessing Temporal Trends and Industry Contributions to Air and Water Pollution Using Stochastic Dominance

2014

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We employ a stochastic dominance (SD) approach to analyze the components that contribute to environmental degradation over time. The variables that are considered include countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water pollution. Our approach is based on pair-wise SD tests. First, we study the dynamic progress of each separate variable over time, from 1990 to 2005, within 5-year horizons. Then, pair-wise SD tests are used to study the major industry contributors to the overall GHG emissions and water pollution at any given time, to uncover the industry which contributes the most to total emissions and water pollution. We find that CO2 emissions not only contribute the most to the GHG emissions over time, but also increased within 15 year in the first-order SD sense. On the other hand, water pollution increased in a second-order SD sense. Pair-wise industry comparisons suggest that the major industry contributors to the CO2 emissions have always been the electricity and heat production sectors, while the transport sector has been the second contributor between 1990 and 2005. Finally, the food industry gradually became the major contributing industry for water pollution over time.JEL Classifications: C4, C5, C14, Q01, Q5, Q51

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China's foreign trade and climate change: A case study of CO2 emissions

Cited by 284 publications

References 18 publications

Potential and Pitfalls of Frugal Innovation in the Water Sector: Insights from Tanzania to Global Value Chains

Potential and Pitfalls of Frugal Innovation in the Water Sector: Insights from Tanzania to Global Value Chains

The evolution of Chinese policies and governance structures on environment, energy and climate

Assessing Temporal Trends and Industry Contributions to Air and Water Pollution Using Stochastic Dominance

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