A Study On Trade And China's Industrial CO₂ Emissions

Economic globalization makes countries all over the world become increasingly close through trade, investment, etc. and also makes environmental problem evolve into a global problem. From the sign of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol, and then to the World Climate Conference held in Copenhagen, world climate change caused by the emission of Greenhouse Gases has been considered to be the overriding issue human beings have ever faced. China is the world's second largest energy producer and consumer country, and emits the most CO2 among the world, which has been accused by other developed countries. However, to determine the responsibility of CO2 emissions just from the total amount one country emits is unfair. Therefore, in order to reasonably determine the responsibility for emissions reductions, it is of great significance to research on what impact trade has on CO2 emissions.Firstly, the paper reviewed the current research related to international trade and CO2 emissions, pointed out the deficiencies of current study, and brought forward its own research content. Secondly, based on the current situation of China's trade and CO2 emissions, this paper analyzed the impact of export to china's industrial CO2 emissions through Composition effect, Technical effect and Scale effect, and then researched the embodied CO2 emissions of trade by using Environmental Input-Output analysis. Finally, this paper analyzed the relationships between economic growth, trade and China's industrial CO2 emissions through a panel data model.Based on the analysis mentioned above, this paper reached that:Firstly, the scale effect was more powerful than the total structural effect and technical effect, making export increased China's industrial CO2 emissions. Secondly, China actually had undertaken trade partners' CO2 emissions through trade, and the net export of consumer index had also confirmed the transfer of high CO2 emission industries from developed countries to China. Thirdly, the results of econometric model showed that, for capital-intensive industry, environmental Kuznets curve is established, the increase in the capital labor ratio and exports increased China's industrial CO2 emissions, while imports helped to reduce the emissions; and for labor-intensive industries, environmental Kuznets curve didn't hold, capital-labor ratio was negatively correlated with China's industrial CO2 emissions, and the increase in exports increased CO2 emissions, but was not significant statistically, while imports were significantly negative to China's industrial CO2 emissions. Lastly, this paper put forward some corresponding countermeasures to help reduce China's CO2 emissions.