Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
9.1
Introduction
Trade and environment issues have been widely discussed by researchers. With the
increasing seriousness of global warming, it is important to deal with the challenges
of economic development caused by climate change and to control the threat of
global warming.
Studies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) show that the
temperature effect of CO
2
released by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and
natural gas accounts for 71 % of the total greenhouse effect. However, economic
growth is often accompanied by a substantial increase of CO
2
emissions in the
process of a country's industrialization, which would influence the environment
greatly. As the world's largest developing and manufacturing country, China
is facing tremendous pressure and challenges in the control of greenhouse gas
emissions. According to International Energy Agency (IEA) statistics, China's
CO
2
emissions have already surpassed the U.S., and China has become the world's
largest CO
2
emitter.
1
As one of the three engines stimulating China's economic development, its
exports have been booming since it joined the WTO. In 2007, the contribution of
exports to GDP reached 18.1 %, and exports also promoted GDP growth by 2.5 %.
2
China, as the “world's factory”, has a great deal of energy resource consumption
and rising carbon emissions along with a huge trade surplus (see Fig.
9.1
, China's
current account balance and carbon emissions trend, in which the red line shows
the current account balance trend and the blue line indicates the carbon emissions
trend). Due to a coal-dominated energy structure
3
,
4
and low energy efficiency
compared to developed countries, China's overall CO
2
emissions are high.
This paper studies the relationship between carbon emissions and China-Japan
trade in goods. We focus on Japan for the following reasons: first, Japan's energy
efficiency, which is at the forefront of the world, is much higher than China's.
Because of the extreme lack of energy, Japan's energy self-sufficiency rate is 4 %;
90 % of the remainder relies on imports.
5
To overcome this energy shortcoming,
the Japanese government adjusts economic policies and the industrial structure; in
addition, they develop energy-saving technology and promote renewable energy
resources to reduce energy consumption. Second, the value of China-Japan trade is
1
Source:Key World Energy Statistics 2010, IEA
2
Source: China Statistical Yearbook 2010
3
According to China Statistical Yearbook 2010, in 2009 the total energy consumption of China is
about 3.06647 billion tons of standard coal, of which 70.4 % is coal consumption, 17.9 % is oil
consumption, 3.9 % is natural gas consumption, and 7.8 % is other clean energy consumption
e.g. hydropower, nuclear power, and wind power.
4
According to CDIAC (2006), main fossil fuel emission factors are as follows: coal 102 kg
CO
2
/10
6
J, coke 107 kg CO
2
/10
6
J, natural gas 56.1107 kg CO
2
/10
6
J, gasoline 59.3 kg
CO
2
/10
6
J, crude oil 63.3 kg CO
2
/10
6
J, kerosene 61.9 kg CO
2
/10
6
J, diesel 64.1 kg CO
2
/10
6
J.
5
The Energy Data and Modeling Center, the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan. 2007 hand-
book of energy & economic statistics in Japan: The Energy Conservation Center, 2007.
