Tracking Inter-Regional Carbon Flows: A Hybrid Network Model

Abstract

The mitigation of anthropogenic carbon emissions has moved beyond the local scale because they diffuse across boundaries, and the consumption that triggers emissions has become regional and global. A precondition of effective mitigation is to explicitly assess inter-regional transfer of emissions. This study presents a hybrid network model to track inter-regional carbon flows by combining network analysis and input–output analysis. The direct, embodied, and controlled emissions associated with regions are quantified for assessing various types of carbon flow. The network-oriented metrics called “controlled emissions” is proposed to cover the amount of carbon emissions that can be mitigated within a region by adjusting its consumption. The case study of the Jing–Jin–Ji Area suggests that CO₂ emissions embodied in products are only partially controlled by a region from a network perspective. Controlled carbon accounted for about 70% of the total embodied carbon flows, while household consumption only controlled about 25% of Beijing’s emissions, much lower than its proportion of total embodied carbon. In addition to quantifying emissions, the model can pinpoint the dominant processes and sectors of emissions transfer across regions. This technique is promising for searching efficient pathways of coordinated emissions control across various regions connected by trade