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Introduction

Embodied (or embedded) emissions refer to the accumulated emissions that are emitted over the entire production process of a given product, process, or activity. Emissions include the direct emissions emitted during the production process as well as the indirect emissions that occur along the global supply chain as a result of energy acquisition, transportation, manufacturing, etc. On the global level, embodied emissions refer to the emissions embodied in trade, meaning the flow of emissions emitted through one country’s production to satisfy another country’s consumption. The reason why we study embodied emissions is because it offers a better understanding of the environmental separation between domestic consumption and global production. Furthermore, the study of embodied emissions provides insight to carbon leakage, which is the shift in carbon dioxide pollution from developed countries to developing countries. Through international trade, developed countries that have stricter environmental regulations can outsource high pollution production in order to shift, rather than abate, their own emissions.

This graph shows the share of global cumulative energy-related CO2 emissions between 1890-2007.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Share_of_global_cumulative_energy-related_carbon_dioxide_emissions_for_major_emitters_between_1890-2007.png

This world image shows the ratio of GDP to CO2 emissions. The green-colored countries indicate higher figure than the world and red-colored countries show a lower figure than the world.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ratio_of_GDP_to_carbon_dioxide_emissions.PNG

This graph shows the cumulative energy-related CO2 emission between 1850 and 2005, according to low, middle, high income, European Union, and OECD countries.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cumulative_energy-related_carbon_dioxide_emissions_between_1850-2005_for_low-income,_middle-income,_high-income,_the_EU-15,_and_OECD_countries.png

EET: Embedded Emissions in Trade BEET: Balance of Emissions Embodied in Trade

Definition of EEI, EET, EEE, BEET (Embedded emission is the same as embodied emission)

Body Definition of embedded carbon emission: “The embodied carbon emissions includes the direct and indirect carbon emitted for the entire production process. These values are needed to estimate impacts on carbon emissions due to changes in consumption patterns.

(Estimating the Embodied Carbon Emissions from the Material Content (1997) By. Kazuhiko Nishimura t, Hiroki Hondo and Yohji Uchiyama)

Kyoto Protocol (link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol) Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement used to work towards greenhouse gases emissions. In the first commitment stage, 37 industrialized countries and the EU members agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emission to an average of five percent against 1990 levels. In the second commitment stage, countries committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 18 percent below 1990 levels from 2013-2020. A special notice on the change of countries commitment in the second commitment change.

http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php

Body Embedded Emission country examples

Embodied Environmental Emissions in United States

This graph from the Environmental Protection Agency shows the United States emissions per Capita and per dollar GDP.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_GG_Emissions_per_Cap_and_per_Dollar_GDP.jpg

It has shown that United States’ imports rose 128% from 1996 to 2006 while exports rose only 65%.

(Journal article: Embodied Environmental Emissions in U.S. International Trade, 1997-2004. By. Christopher L. Weber, H. Scott Matthews)

In general, theory suggests that each nation will produce the goods or services it has a competitive advantage in making potentially high-value goods such as electronics and personal services being made in the developed world and low-value or pollution-intensive goods being made in developing nations.

(Journal article: Embodied Environmental Emissions in U.S. International Trade, 1997-2004. By. Christopher L. Weber, H. Scott Matthews)

According to one study that evaluated the embedded emissions from 1997-2004, it was estimated that the overall embodied CO2 in U.S. imports has grown from between 0.5 and 0.8 Gt of CO2 in 1997 to between 0.8 and 1.8 Gt of CO2 in 2004, representing between 9-14% and 13-30% of U.S. (2-4% to 3-7% of global) CO2 emissions in 1997 and 2004, respectively. Overall, the increased import from the seven largest trading partners such as Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, and South Korea from 1997-2004, have led to a large increase in the U.S. embedded emissions in trade (EET) for CO2, SO2, and NOx. (Journal article: Embodied Environmental Emissions in U.S. International Trade, 1997-2004. By. Christopher L. Weber, H. Scott Matthews)

The study, Embodied Environmental Emissions in U.S. International Trade, utilized the multi-country input-output model of the U.S. and its data sources were commodity trade data of approximately 18,000 commodities obtained from the U.S. Census (Bureau of Economic Analysis and its publication of annual input-output tables)

(Journal article: Embodied Environmental Emissions in U.S. International Trade, 1997-2004. By. Christopher L. Weber, H. Scott Matthews)

The results showed that the three pollutants (CO2, SO2, and NOx) between 1997 and 2004 rate of growth was faster between the 2 year period of 2002 to 2004 than for the 5 year period of 1997 to 2002. It is also clear that these are very large masses of emissions: for example, best estimates for CO2 embodied in U.S. imports doubled from 0.6 to 1.3 Gt between 1997 and 2004, which represents 3-5% of world CO2 emissions in each respective year. The top seven trading partners, (Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, Germany, the UK, and Korea) accounting for approximately 60% of dollar-valued trade in each year (9), account for 65-80% of embodied CO2, 70-86% of embodied SO2, and 64-79% of embodied NOx emissions in the time series.

(Journal article: Embodied Environmental Emissions in U.S. International Trade, 1997-2004. By. Christopher L. Weber, H. Scott Matthews)

There are several figures in this study that explains the different commodity groups imported. For example, one figure shows that U.S. export structure contains a relatively low-energy mix of commodities, such as services and advanced chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, while import structure contains many energy-intensive goods such as raw materials, energy goods, electronics, and several types of machinery. Large portions of the growth in EEI or embodied emissions in imports (Figure 2) are due to increased imports of electric and electronic goods and components (growing from 11 to 18%of total), machinery and equipment (16 to 19%), miscellaneous manufacturing (4 to 8%) and textiles (6 to 9%). Most other commodity groups decreased in relative share of EEI, but increased in volume of emissions, including primary metals and raw materials, chemicals and plastics, and transportation equipment.

(Journal article: Embodied Environmental Emissions in U.S. International Trade, 1997-2004. By. Christopher L. Weber, H. Scott Matthews)

Embodied greenhouse gas emissions of Switzerland

In Switzerland, the national greenhouse inventory are prepared under the guidelines of the Climate Convention. But these guidelines only take domestic emissions into account. Switzerland tried to quantify its embodied emissions by trying to account for emissions due to imports and exports.

It has been found that when considering the embodied emissions due to imports and exports, the total greenhouse gas emissions are quantified to be “12.5 tonnes CO2-equivalents (10.7 tonnes CO2) per capita. Only 7.2 tonnes CO2-equivalents (6.0 tonnes CO2) out of this are domestic emissions.” (Cite:http://www.esu-services.ch/projects/graue-emissionen/)

According to the study(available in the above website) done by Niels Jungbluth, Roland Steiner, Rolf Frischknecht, compared to other countries Switzerland has low per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases because only domestic emissions are considered. The calculation is based on foreign trade statistics and life cycle assessment studies.

United Kingdom Embodied Emissions United Kingdom may appear to be doing well in reducing its carbon emissions, however it has shown that when they count the emission due to imports and trade, the figures actually is increasing.

Without counting the imports, United Kingdom has cut greenhouse gases just under 9% from 2008-2009 and approximately 18% since 1990, which seems to show a good sign of reaching its 2050 goal of 80% reduction in its carbon footprint. (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/753571/uks_greenhouse_gas_emissions_reductions_an_illusion.html)

A 2008 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) revealed an 18% increase in emissions related to UK consumption between 1992 and 2004, for example, with those embedded in imports rising from 35 per cent of UK emissions to 67 per cent over the same period. (http://sei-international.org/publications?pid=831)

Professor David Mackay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._C._MacKay), a professor of natural philosophy in the department of Physics at the University of Cambridge also said that historically, Britain was among the top three worst polluters in the world along with America and Germany. He said in the early 1900s Britain was burning per capita the same amount as Americans do today. (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/329858/britain_exporting_co2_emissions_abroad_says_scientist.html)

Britain's greenhouse gas emissions are actually twice as high as current estimates says the Government's new chief energy scientist. Speaking to the BBC, Professor David MacKay said we were exporting a large part of our carbon emissions to developing countries. 'Our energy footprint has decreased over the last few decades and that's largely because we've exported our industry,' he said. (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/329858/britain_exporting_co2_emissions_abroad_says_scientist.html)

CO2 emissions embedded in imports (EEI) are higher than emissions embedded in exports (EEE) for all years and there is a clear trend towards increasing EEI, which went up from 4.3% of producer emissions in 1997 to 21% in 2004.

From the three world regions investigated in this project, the Rest of the World region (which includes Asia) contributes most to EEI. This dominance has increased sharply in the last couple of years while EEI from non-European OECD countries have fallen significantly at the same time.

Another interesting result is that from all emissions embedded in UK exports (EEE), 27% came from imports to the UK in 1992; this figure increased steadily over the years ending up with 39% of EEE coming from import sources in 2004.

The results for embedded CO2 emissions from the UK-MRIO 1 model are in line with findings from other researchers. Previous studies applying a range of different methodologies (SRIO, MRIO, MFA) also suggest that more embedded CO2 emissions are imported to the UK than exported.

These are all from an article from Stockholm Environment Institute, The University of Sydney, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Below is an useful article about the current trend about embedded emission in UK. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13187156

This is an article about how embedded emission in developed nation have increased the emission. http://www.fcrn.org.uk/research-library/climate-change/ghg-trends/embedded-emissions-developed-world-have-increased-faster-emission-reductions

This is an article that talks about the controversy caused by embedded emission in international society, especially including China and UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/23/china-co2-emissions-climate

This is an article for UK again. with figures. http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2012/03/defra-the-uk-outsources-emissions

Defra stresses that according to the University of Leeds's centre for sustainable accounting - which has been contracted by the department to measure these statistics - the UK's carbon footprint fell by nine per cent between 2008 and 2009 (if the UK follows global trends, this may well be a short term fall due to the financial crisis, however, rather than a longer-term trend).

But the figures also reveal that the UK's 2009 carbon footprint was 20 per cent greater than it was in 1990, with a huge doubling in CO2 emissions related to imports. When the CO2 embedded in imported goods and services is taken into account, the UK carbon footprint calculated on the basis of consumer spending is nearly double the figure that comes from measuring emissions from UK production - just over 700 million tonnes of CO2 as opposed to around 400 million tonnes.

China’s Embodied Emissions

This is a graph comparing the CO2 emissions between China and U.S. from 1990 to 2006. (BUT I don’t know if this is really that necessary... tell me what you guys think)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CO2_emissions_China_USA_1990-2006.svg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carbon_dioxide_emissions_due_to_consumption_in_China.png

Chinese CO2 emissions increased by 45% from 2002 to 2005, according to a 2009 report by the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research (Cicero): ‘Half of the increase was due to export production, 60 per cent of which was exported to western countries.’ (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/753571/uks_greenhouse_gas_emissions_reductions_an_illusion.html)

More than 30% of consumption-based emissions were imported in countries including the UK, France, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria in 2004, according to a March 2010 report by the Carnegie Institution. Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions found 6.2 gigatonnes of CO2 (23 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions) were traded internationally in 2004 – ‘primarily as exports from China and other emerging markets to consumers in developing countries’. (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/753571/uks_greenhouse_gas_emissions_reductions_an_illusion.html)

It calculated that factoring in net imports would add 4 tonnes to the annual carbon footprint of the average European (currently 11 tonnes a year) and 2.4 tonnes to that of the average American (currently 20 tonnes). It also revealed that 22.5 per cent of China’s net emissions in 2004 were embodied in goods exported to foreign consumers, primarily in the US, Japan and Western Europe. (http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/753571/uks_greenhouse_gas_emissions_reductions_an_illusion.html)

Conclusion