Trade, Technique and Composition Effects: What is Behind the Fall in World-Wide SO2 Emissions 1990-2000?

Arbeitspapier

Combining unique data bases on emissions with sectoral output and employment data, we study the sources of the fall in world-wide SO2 emissions and estimate the impact of trade on emissions. Contrarily to concerns raised by environmentalists, an emission-decomposition exercise shows that scale effects are dominated by technique effects working towards a reduction in emissions. A second exercise comparing the actual trade situation with an autarky benchmark estimates that trade, by allowing clean countries to become net importers of emissions, leads to a 10% increase in world emissions with respect to autarky in 1990, a figure that shrinks to 3.5% in 2000. Additionally, back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that emissions related to transport are of the same magnitude. In a third exercise, we use linear programming to simulate extreme situations where world emissions are either maximal or minimal. It turns out that effective emissions correspond to a 90% reduction with respect to the worst case, but that another 80% reduction could be reached if emissions were minimal.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Nota di Lavoro ; No. 93.2007

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Neoclassical Models of Trade ; Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
• Subject: Trade ; Growth ; Environment ; Decomposition ; Embodied Emissions in Trade ; Transport ; Luftverunreinigung ; Außenwirtschaft ; Dekompositionsverfahren ; Welt

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Grether, Jean-Marie ; Mathys, Nicole A. ; de Melo, Jaime
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)
• (where): Milano
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/74270