Spatial characteristics and driving factors of global energy-related sulfur oxides emissions transferring via international trade

Abstract

Using the logarithmic mean divisia index decomposition methods within the multi-region input-output analytical framework, this paper investigates global energy-related sulfur oxides emissions transferring via trade, so as to reveal spatial characteristics of the pollutant emissions flows, and explores driving factors of the changes of sulfur dioxide emissions embodied in trade (SEET) for 39 major countries for the period 1995-2011. One important finding from this study is that the global SEET mainly flew from developing countries like China to highly developed economies like the U.S., the EU, and Japan. However, of particular concern is that for some countries like Canada and Australia with ample resources and wealthy regions, they had been gradually becoming the net sulfur dioxide emissions exporters in global trade since 1995. Another important finding is that economic development had played a significant role in promoting the global SEET growth, and the expanse of population scale had a slight and positive driving effect on increasing the sulfur oxides emissions embodied in trade for a large proportion of 39 countries, but some coping strategies like improving energy intensity, increasing the proportion of clean energy in the total energy consumption, and optimizing industrial structure could effectively lower the sulfur oxides emissions embodied in trade in a group of 39 countries.

Keywords: Energy intensity; International trade; Per capita GDP; Sulfur oxides emissions.