The Transfer Of Embodied Carbon In International Trade:Based On Copper Industry Chain

The international trade of copper and its products is an important part of global trade,which provides a solid material basis for the world economic development.However,countries are also facing carbon emissions caused by the mineral trade.With the increasingly close between countries and the world trade,embodied carbon reduction becomes one of the hot issues in academic research.Based on the theory of industrial economics and complex network,this paper combines the copper concentrates and refined copper(CAR)to study the current situation of and their embodied carbon emissions in international trade.Data of CAR comes from the UN Comtrade data base for the 2007-2014 period.The coefficient of carbon emissions is drawn from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.The energy consumption coefficients of producing CAR are drawn from National Standard of China.Gross Domestic Product data is valued from the International Monetary Fund.The current international trade situation of CAR is expounded.And then,a model is developed to calculate the embodied carbon emissions in international trade.There exists a large amount of potential transfer of carbon emissions.Also,the external dependency of copper concentrates of China is not so high.Moreover,considering that the changes of embodied carbon emissions network of copper concentrates and refined copper(ECCR)international trade,energy policies or emergencies are main factors to resources-oriented countries,sudden global economic events are main factors to importers.Combined with the economy of every country,we also analyze the embodied carbon intensity,which are significantly different of distinct type's countries.Furthermore,the evolution rule of embodied carbon intensity of some developed countries is similar to some developing countries.Analyzing the current situation of CAR in China and the transfer of embodied carbon.There are still some problems in international trade of China,for example,high external dependency of copper concentrates,trade pattern is unitary and irrational trade structure.Finally,in allusion to the CAR of China,low-carbon suggestions and countermeasures are put forward.An ECCR international trade network developed in this paper provided a reference for the study of embodied carbon in international trade.The results of the study have made some reference for the formulation of copper and refined copper trade countries to optimize trade structure and carbon emission reduction decision-making,as well as providing a new perspective and research basis for other research about embodied carbon emissions of international trade.