Spatial analysis of environmental issues : applications and extensions of the environmental input-output model

The majority of environmental input-output studies focus on a single region or country. Linking environmental input-output models to the space can provide a better understanding on the spatial relationships of consumption and production activities and associated environmental issues. This PhD thesis employs the environmental input-output techniques using geo-demographic data bases to explore spatio-environmental issues in the developed country, UK, and the developing country, China. In this thesis, four case studies (Chapters 3, 4, 5 & 6) were carried out on natural resources extraction and environmental pollution using water consumption and CO2 emissions as environmental issues. Chapter 3 assessed the UK production and consumption water footprints and found that the UK consumption water footprint was more than three times bigger than its production water footprints. About half of the UK consumption water footprints were imported from Non-OECD countries, many of which were water scarce. Chapter 4 focused on regional virtual water flows and water footprints in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), China. The results show that the production and consumption activities outside of the basin also contributed to the water stress in the YRB, particularly the water scarce lower reach. Chapter 5 applied input-output structural decomposition analysis (10 SDA) to identify the key driving forces for China's regional CO2 emissions 2002-2007 and found that increases of final consumption such as urban household consumption, capital investment and export were the key driving forces for most of China's regions. Chapter 6 assessed the distributional effects of climate change taxation for the UK. The results showed that both CO2 and GHG taxes tended to be regressive, while a GHG tax led to a more equal distribution of the tax burden across income and lifestyle groups. This research concluded that linking environmental input-output models to space could present the spatial relationships of different regions in terms of environmental issues and build up consumption based spatio- environmental inventory. Policy implications from the four case studies have also been discussed

Erratum:The Unintended Side Effects of Bioplastics: Carbon, Land, and Water Footprints (One Earth (2020) 3(1) (45–53), (S2590332220303055), (10.1016/j.oneear.2020.06.016))

(One Earth 3, 45–53, July 24, 2020) In the originally published version of this article, the authors inadvertently used global volumes of bioplastics in plastic packaging instead of European volumes for Figure 1C. After noticing this, the authors recalculated European bioplastic packaging consumption, and as such, Figure 1 and its legend have been corrected in the online article (as shown below) to reflect all data sources used for estimating European bioplastic volumes in Figure 1C. In the Experimental Procedures, the Data and Code Availability section has been updated, and the section “Estimation of European Bioplastic Volumes” has been added. Additionally, reference 69 is new, and two incorrect citations of a Table 3 (which is not present in the article) have been changed to Figure 2 and Table 2 on pages 49 and 51, respectively. These changes do not affect the conclusions of the article because Figure 1 is not used in later calculations; it is rather an illustrative description of the role of bioplastics in the current European packaging market. The authors sincerely apologize to readers for any confusion that may have resulted from this oversight. [Figure presented] [Figure presented

The Unintended Side Effects of Bioplastics:Carbon, Land, and Water Footprints

The environmental impacts of plastics have become an important political and academic topic. One of the main applications of plastics is packaging, a product with a very short service life, leading to a wide range of environmental problems. In this Perspective, we look at the potential environmental consequences (in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and land and water footprints) of substitution of petrochemical plastics used for packaging in Europe with bioplastics. The research is based on a review of life cycle impact assessment studies and additional calculations to assess the footprints of this substitution. The results demonstrate that currently it does not seem feasible to replace all the petrochemical plastic packaging with bioplastic because this will inevitably result in a considerable increase of land and water use. Unless we find ways to decrease plastic demand, most of the efforts to stop plastic pollution are likely to prove temporary and inadequate

Household carbon inequality in the U.S

Household carbon emissions are mainly affected by income and other key demographic factors. Understanding the contribution of these factors can inform climate responsibilities and potential demand side climate mitigation strategies. By linking US consumer expenditure survey data with a nested national within a global multi-regional input-output model, this study estimates consumption-based GHG emissions for 9 income groups and assesses the carbon inequality in the US for 2015. Our results show that the per capita carbon footprint (CF) of the highest income group (200 thousand USD per year) with 32.3 tons is about 2.6 times the per capita CF of the lowest income group

Drivers toward a Low-Carbon Electricity System in China's Provinces

Decarbonization of the power sector is one of the most important efforts to meet the climate mitigation targets under the Paris Agreement. China's power sector is of global importance, accounting for similar to 25% of global electricity production in 2015. The carbon intensity of China's electricity is still much higher than the global average, but the country has made important strides toward a low-carbon transition based on two main pillars: improvement of energy efficiency and decreasing the share of fossil fuels. By applying a decoupling indicator, our study shows that 21 provinces achieved a "relative decoupling" of carbon emissions and electricity production and the remaining nine provinces achieved "absolute decoupling" between 2005 and 2015. We updated China's emission factors based on the most recent data by also considering the quality of imported coal and compared our results with the widely used Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change coefficients to show the sensitivity of results and the potential error. Our decomposition analysis shows that improvement of energy efficiency was the dominant driver for decarbonization of 16 provincial power sectors, while the access to low-carbon electricity and substitution of natural gas for coal and oil further accelerated their decarbonization

China\u27s inter-regional spillover of carbon emissions and domestic supply chains

In this study, we apply the inter-regional input–output model to explain the relationship between China’s inter-regional spillover of CO2 emissions and domestic supply chains for 2002 and 2007. Based on this model, we propose alternative indicators such as the trade in CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions in trade, regional trade balances, and comparative advantage of CO2 emissions. The empirical results not only reveal the nature and significance of inter-regional environmental spillover within China’s domestic regions but also demonstrate how CO2 emissions are created and distributed across regions via domestic production networks. The main finding shows that a region’s CO2 emissions depend on not only its intra-regional production technique, energy use efficiency but also its position and participation degree in domestic and global supply chains

Carbon footprint of American lifestyles:A geodemographic segmentation approach

In order to deliver substantial reductions of U.S. residential emissions, cost-effective responses to climate change will need to recognize changes in consumer behavior and lifestyles as important mechanisms to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions. Marketing experts have long recognized the usefulness of developing composite variables to target specific consumer lifestyles and have subsequently developed market segmentation approaches to express relationships between geodemographics and consumer behavior. This paper represents the first use of detailed segmentation data to look at US footprint at high spatial resolution. We employ market segmentation data to delineate lifestyles for approximately 70 000 census tracts in the US and develop a spatial framework to better conceptualize lifestyles as location specific typologies of emission drivers. We find that lifestyles are not only very useful in explaining variations in emissions but in fact are as important as income, typically recognized as the major determinant of consumption emissions. Results from our analysis link the differences between suburban and urban footprints directly to lifestyle patterns and illustrate the geographic distribution of emissions resulting from households' consumption. We find that statistical clustering and consumer classification methods provide a unique perspective for understanding how various CO2 drivers interact and impact household emissions. Our proposed framework suggests that carbon mitigation strategies should move beyond a 'one-size-fits-all' approach centered on income and account for community specific lifestyle impacts related to consumer preferences and demographic characteristics at fine spatial scale

Decomposition and attribution analysis for assessing the progress in decoupling industrial development from wastewater discharge in China

China's strategy of greening industrial development aims to decouple industrial growth from industrial wastewater discharges (IWDs). This study combines decoupling analysis, decomposition analysis, and attribution analysis to support this goal. First, the decoupling analysis is employed to explore the degree of decoupling between industrial growth and IWDs in China, as well as across 30 provinces, from 2000 to 2015. Next, a decomposition analysis focusing on the change in industrial wastewater discharge intensity (IWDI) is performed to reveal the factors influencing decoupling trends. Then, attribution analysis is used to attribute contributions of these factors to different regions. Our decoupling results indicate an increasing decoupling trend between industrial output and IWDs in China in the past 15 years. Meanwhile, there is a convergence in decoupling degrees among provinces. Decomposition results reveal that water intensity plays a dominant role in promoting decoupling, while the wastewater discharge coefficient negatively impacted decoupling before 2005 but contributed to decoupling later on. Regional attribution results indicate provinces in South China have exerted more efforts in both water saving and wastewater treatment during the study period. Water scarce provinces in North China performed better in terms of water saving, while more developed and water-rich provinces in South China performed better in wastewater treatment. This paper suggests targeted policy methods at province level

Inequalities in Global Trade: A Cross-Country Comparison of Trade Network Position, Economic Wealth, Pollution and Mortality

In this paper we investigate how structural patterns of international trade give rise to emissions inequalities across countries, and how such inequality in turn impact countries’ mortality rates. We employ Multi-regional Input-Output analysis to distinguish between sulfurdioxide (SO2) emissions produced within a country’s boarders (production-based emissions) and emissions triggered by consumption in other countries (consumption-based emissions). We use social network analysis to capture countries’ level of integration within the global trade network. We then apply the Prais-Winsten panel estimation technique to a panel data set across 172 countries over 20 years (1990–2010) to estimate the relationships between countries’ level of integration and SO2 emissions, and the impact of trade integration and SO2 emission on mortality rates. Our findings suggest a positive, (log-) linear relationship between a country’s level of integration and both kinds of emissions. In addition, although more integrated countries are mainly responsible for both forms of emissions, our findings indicate that they also tend to experience lower mortality rates. Our approach offers a unique combination of social network analysis with multiregional input-output analysis, which better operationalizes intuitive concepts about global trade and trade structure

Decline of net SO₂ emission intensity in China's thermal power generation:Decomposition and attribution analysis

Thermal power generation is the main electricity source of China, but also contributes the largest share of air pollutants in the country. Because of China's considerable efforts in pollution control, one measure of the most important source of air pollution net SO2 emission intensity (NSEI) of thermal power generation has dropped significantly since 2006. Understanding the reasons behind the decline could help further explore the solution-space for deeper mitigation targets. This study combines multiplicative LMDI with attribution analysis to decompose the decline in national NSEI into four factors (i.e. SO2 treatment or end-of-pipe approaches; SO2 emission factor of coal and coal intensity, which both account for cleaner production measures; and geographical structure effects) for 30 regions. Our results show that end-of-pipe technologies remained the primary way to control air pollution in China. In addition, cleaner production efforts contributed to SO2 mitigation. Attribution results at the province level show that northern provinces increased their efforts in SO2 treatment and reducing coal intensity, while southern provinces have done more on reducing the SO2 intensity of coal. Provinces were classified into four categories (i.e. leading regions, end-of-pipe dependent regions, process-dependent regions and lagging regions) according to their performance in terms of end-of-pipe treatment and cleaner production, to help them choose targeted policy methods