Research On Carbon Emission Reduction In Guangdong Province From The Perspective Of Trade

The human activities cause the increase of greenhouse gas emission,which directly affecting the intensity of the climate change.Controlling the production of greenhouse gases dominated by carbon dioxide has become the focus of the international community.To this end,majority of countries signed the Paris Agreement,which set the target of controlling global temperature change and put forward the principle of each country’s intended contribution.Over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up,China’s economic has made significant progress,and foreign trade has become an important driver of Chinese economic growth.However,this extensive model of economic growth also lead to a worse environment.China becoming the largest carbon emitter since 2005.To solve this severe climate problems,the Chinese Government has taken responsibility of emission reduction initiatively,and propose goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.The report of the Twentieth National Congress further emphasized that we should promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality actively and steadily.The task of reducing emissions is heavy,which requires the cooperation of all provinces to implement the emission reduction work.Guangdong province is the leading province of China’s economy,and also a key province of foreign trade.It has been the largest exporter of China’s export trade since 1989.With the rapid development of trade,Guangdong province has also paid a heavy price of energy and environment.There are only few studies on Guangdong’s trade on carbon emissions.In order to further explore this issue and provide suggestions for Guangdong province to develop scientific and reasonable emission reduction policies,this paper will study the impact of trade on carbon emissions in Guangdong province based on the input-output model and MRIO tables in 2012 and 2017.The LMDI method is used to decompose the change factors of the embodied carbon emission in export trade of Guangdong province,and to explore how Guangdong province guides the trade to low-carbon development.At the same time,due to the increasing frequency and large scale of inter-provincial trade,the transfer of carbon emissions cannot be ignored.In order to avoid the impact of regional "carbon leakage",this study further examines the relationship between inter-provincial trade and carbon emissions in Guangdong province.The empirical results show that in terms of foreign trade,Guangdong province’s export trade and carbon emissions have decoupled to a certain extent,and Guangdong province has not become a "refuge of pollution".Through LMDI method,it is found that the improvement of energy consumption intensity and energy carbon emission intensity is important factors for Guangdong province to become a net embodied carbon inflow province in export trade.In terms of inter-provincial trade,Guangdong province transfers a large amount of carbon emissions to other provinces and cities through inter-provincial trade,which is the beneficiary of economic and environmental benefits of inter-provincial trade.In order to better implement carbon emission reduction work and reduce false emission reduction caused by carbon emission transfer,this study proposes a carbon emission reduction responsibility allocation model based on the shared responsibility principle.Under the requirements of dual carbon target,the carbon emission reduction during 2021-2030 that Guangdong province and its 29 departments should undertake will be calculated,so as to implement the emission reduction work of Guangdong province to all subjects in a more reasonable way.In conclusion,this study suggests that Guangdong province should further adjust its industrial structure,and improve the export trade structure of the secondary industry.And then optimize the energy structure and increase the proportion of clean energy use,Increase investment in research of green technology to improve energy efficiency.Last but not least,we should establish the carbon emission accounting system and initial carbon emission quota system based on carbon emission index of shared responsibility,formulate reasonable emission reduction policies on this basis,and actively promote carbon emission reduction work.