Researching The Impact Of Export Trade On Carbon Emissions In Zhejiang Province

At present, global warming has been a great challenge to the harmony between human beingsand nature, to the harmonious development between economy and environment. As the largestcarbon emitter in the world, it is not only the inherent requirement of achieving sustainabledevelopment in China, but also, it is our international responsibility that we should take to practicethe policy of energy conservation and emission reduction. Facing complicated conditions such asthe low carbon trend of global economy, the threat of carbon tariffs that is being brewed by thedeveloped countries, the requirement of practicing the policy of energy conservation and emissionreduction proposed by our state, the pressure of transforming economic development pattern, thesignificance of international trade being more and more prominent, it is Zhejiang’s inevitablechoice to explore the low carbon trade development road.We take the environmental effects as theoretical basis; introduce factor decompositionanalysis to research the impact of main industries’ export trade on carbon emissions by. It turns outthat from the year2003to2011, the main industries’ export trade in Zhejiang Province bringscarbon emissions significant positive structural effect, technical effect and negative scale effect.But the scale negative effect is bigger than structural and technical positive effect causing the totaleffect is negative. In9years, the export trade in Zhejiang Province increased carbon emissions338.8thousand tons. The changes of export commodity structure, technology, export scale work onthe change of carbon emissions amount together. Among them, the expansion of export scale is thechief reason to increasing of carbon emissions; technical progress is the critical path to reducecarbon emissions. Compared to them, the impact of export structure on carbon emissions is theleast. Furthermore, the article use the measurement model to investigate the pertinence amongcarbon emissions in Zhejiang, foreign trade openness, per capita income, economy structure andenergy technique. It turns out that there is a long term and stable co-integration relationship amongthem. The export trade has a significant influence on carbon emissions and it is a negative scaleeffect which shows that a part of carbon emissions come from export in Zhejiang Province. Energytechnique is closely related to carbon emissions; it brings prominent positive technical effect. Comparatively speaking, structural effect is not so obvious, and it is negative.Base on the analysis result, this article put forward some policy proposals as follows:strengthen the functions of the government, solve the problem of environmental externality andmarket failure; optimize the export trade structure, achieve international trade’s transformation andupgrading; improve the structure of energy consumption and make technical breakthroughs,enhance energy efficiency; strengthen the international corporation on reducing carbon emissions.