Active participation in the global value chains (GVC) has been recognized as an important factor in curbing the growth of carbon emissions. However, how GVC embedment affects carbon emissions in economies and what are the pathways of its impact need to be further studied. This paper analyzes the mechanism of GVC embedment affecting carbon emissions embodied in exports (CEEE) and selects 17 manufacturing industries in 36 economies around the world for empirical testing. It is found that GVC embedment significantly reduces the CEEE. Specifically, GVC embedment has a suppressive effect on the CEEE of both developed and developing countries, and the former has a greater suppressive effect than the latter; the effect on the CEEE of low-tech industries is significantly negative but not conducive to carbon emissions reduction in high-tech industries; complex and forward embedment have higher emissions reduction effects compared with simple and backward embedment. More importantly, GVC embedment reduces the CEEE through energy conservation effect, structure effect and transfer effect, and all of them show significant inverted U-shaped mediation effect. The findings of this paper have important implications for the sustainable economic development around the world under the GVC division of labor system.
Keywords: carbon emissions embodied in exports; energy conservation and emissions reduction; global value chains; manufacturing.