Globalization has characterized geo-economic integrations of world regions via South-South, North-North, and South-North trades, which play a critical role in displacing global greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the global CH4 emission inventories from the EDGAR database and the global multi-region input-output accounts from the EORA database, this study explores the trade-induced CH4 emission transfers of 20 geographical regions of the world from 1990 to 2015. Global total CH4 emissions increased by 19.13% in 2015 compared to 1990, while trade-related emissions increased by 46.28% over the same period. Western Europe, the USA, Japan, Other East Asia, and Mainland China were the largest five importers of embodied CH4 emissions, while Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, Middle East, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia were the largest five export regions of embodied CH4 emissions. Substantial agriculture- and energy-related CH4 emissions were transferred from developed regions to developing regions. The trade between economies from the global south and the global north had undergone positive changes, with the trade structure and transfer path showing a trend of divergence. Among the total CH4 emissions embodied in international trade, the CH4 emissions embodied in South-North trade accounted for more than half (55.94-62.72 Tg, 71%-55%) from 1990 to 2015. The CH4 emissions embodied in the South-South trade accounted for 19%-34% (14.62-39.46 Tg), and the proportion of CH4 emissions embodied in the North-North trade appeared to be relatively small (10%-11%, 8.05-12.82 Tg) during the period. It is imperative to strengthen South-South, South-North, and North-North cooperation in multilateral trade to jointly cut down the CH4 emissions among world regions.
Keywords: CH(4) emissions; Geo-economic integration; North-north trade; South-south trade; Temporal evolution.
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