A Study On The Effect Of International Trade On Chinese Freight Transport CO₂ Emissions

With the rapid development of economy and the acceleration of the industrialization process,inevitably accompanied by the growth of fossil energy consumption and the deterioration of the ecological environment,countries around the world have begun to attach importance to the development of low-carbon economy.As the largest developing country,China has paid a lot for environmental pollution at the same time of rapid economic development.Freight transport industry as an important service industry of China's national economic and social development,has consumed a lot of energy and caused rising carbon emissions,which has become the key areas of energy conservation and emission reduction in China.Therefore,it is very necessary and urgent to study the carbon emissions of the freight transportation under the background of low carbon economy.Meanwhile,under the background of globalization,the import and export trade,as one of the troika,has made tremendous contributions for economic growth.In 2013,China overtook the US to become the world's largest trading nation.International trade not only promotes China's economic development,but also has a certain impact on ecological environment.In this context,exploring the impact of international trade on the carbon emissions of China's freight transport industry is of great significance.Firstly,based on IPCC(2006),the top-down calculation method is used to measure the CO2 emissions of freight transportation of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2015,the results show that:both the total CO2 emissions and foreign trade have similar regional differences and trends.In addition,in order to understand the impact of freight transport industry itself on freight transportation CO2 emissions,the method of data envelopment analysis(DEA)is used to measure the efficiency of freight transport,the result shows that the freight transport efficiency in eastern China is generally high,while the efficiency in the Midwest is generally lower.Then,based on theoretical analysis,the panel data is used to carry on empirical research of impact of international trade on the freight transport CO2 emissions respectively from the overall foreign trade,the region structure and mode structure.Some evidences are found:Both export and import trade can significantly increase China's freight transport CO2 emissions,where the effect of export trade is greater and more significant;foreign trade of different regions have different degrees of impacts on the freight transport CO2 emissions,where the export trade of three regions all significantly increase the freight transport CO2 emissions,but only the import trade of eastern region can significantly reduce CO2 emissions of freight transport;relative to the general trade,processing trade is more conducive to the realization of CO2 emissions reduction in freight transport industry.Finally,based on empirical results,suggestions are put forward in order to decrease the CO2 emissions of freight transport industry.