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Last update: June 2011

Production-based and consumption-based CO2 emissions for selected countries (2005)

Results

• Consumption-based CO₂ emissions of OECD countries were, on average, about 16% higher in 2005 than conventional measures of production-based emissions suggest. The divergence exceeds 30% in seven OECD countries (Austria, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). As expected, the magnitude of the differences increased in the late 1990s as trade in goods and services increased.
• The emissions structure of countries varies owing to differences in consumption activities, sources of electricity generation and the carbon intensity of imported goods. Electricity-sourced emissions are relatively high in emerging economies (e.g. China and India), whereas emissions due to transport activity and consumption of imported goods are relatively high in developed OECD economies (e.g. Japan and Germany).
• Growth of trade-adjusted consumption-based CO₂ emissions has not fallen in line with domestic CO₂ emissions in OECD countries, partly reflecting the increased global sourcing of emissions-intensive activity from non-OECD countries. While less than half of the global increase in CO₂ emissions during the second half of the 1990s came directly from OECD economies, two-thirds of the global increase was attributable to OECD consumption. By the mid-2000s, the regional contributions to increasing emissions had shifted so that about 12% of the global increase in CO2 emissions between 2000 and 2005 came directly from OECD economies with a quarter attributable to OECD consumption.

Biggest net CO₂ importers and net CO₂ exporters (2005)

Sources: IEA CO₂ Emissions from Fuel Combustion, 2010; OECD, Input-Output Data base, May 2011.

Note: If the consumption-based figure is larger than production-based CO₂, the country is net CO₂ importer.

Emission sources by final expenditure

These diagrams measure two dimensions of CO₂ emissions: the consumption category and the source of CO₂ emissions. Final expenditures of household, government and industry (vertical axis) are separated by durable products, petroleum products and other non-durable goods, utilities, commercial services and non-commercial services. CO₂ emissions embodied in their consumption result from four sources: electricity, non-electricity production, direct combustion of fossil fuels by households and emissions embodied in imported products.

Methodology

Transactions within the international production network and imports and exports of final goods and services can be estimated by using an inter-country economic model based on multi-regional input-output (MRIO) modelling techniques . In order to achieve this, national Input-Output tables are first converted to a common currency (nominal USD) and the import matrices are disaggregated to separate bilateral flows of goods and services. A range of adjustments to deal with measurement issues such as re-exports; unspecified partners and commodities; and missing data, particularly for trade in services, are necessary before the analysis.

The consumption-based emissions of target country j’s resident are calculated as:

The production-based emissions of target country j’s resident are calculated as:

where h_jⁱ is emission factor of final consumption of the products of country j’s sector i (h_jⁱ=θ_jⁱ+φ_jⁱ), e_jⁱ is industrial emissions intensity of country j’s sector i (e_jⁱ=ε_jⁱ+ρ_jⁱ+σ_jⁱ), R is number of countries, B is Leontief inverse, N is number of sector and F_1jⁱ is final expenditure by country j for the country 1’s product of sector i.

The complete methodology can be found here: CO2 Emissions Methodology Formula

Further Reading

• Nakano et al. (2009), "The Measurement of CO₂ Embodiments in International Trade: Evidence from the Harmonised Input-Output and Bilateral Trade Database", OECD STI Working Paper 2009/3

• Ahmad and Wyckoff (2003), "Carbon Dioxide Emissions Embodied in International Trade of Goods", OECD STI Working Paper 2003/15

• OECD work on Green Growth www.oecd.org/greengrowth

• Measuring Progress Towards Green Growth: OECD Indicators [C(2011)30]

• Sample table and charts