175
enabled and reinforced an increased exploitation of resources. Was it not for trade,
many well-endowed countries would have extracted less materials for their own
consumption.
Some studies have tried to quantify the effects of trade on GHG emissions. Using
the domestic production assumption, López et al. ( 2013a ) found that 1.1 Gt CO 2
were avoided trough trade between seven world regions in 2009, representing a
reduction of 18 % of embodied emissions embodied in trade or 4.4 % of global
production emissions. But according to Arto and Dietzenbacher ( 2014 ), the increase
in trade at the global level and associated embodied emissions between 1995 and
2008 had little effect on total global GHG emissions. This was because ‘Although
domestically produced goods have been substituted by imports, the production
abroad was on average as emission intensive as the production at home’ (Arto and
Dietzenbacher 2014 , p. 5393).
For individual countries, the balance can be positive or negative, depending on
the relative carbon intensity of their domestic production compared to the main
trading partners. Trade between Spain and China , for example, is said to have
increased global emissions by 30 Mt CO 2 in 2005 (López et al. 2013b ). Arto et al.
( 2014 ), on the other hand, assert that overall Spain has been avoiding emissions
through trade between 1995 and 2007.
4
Undoubtedly, trade has had many economic and social benefi ts. Yet the economic growth spurred by trade has led to a corresponding rapid growth in physical
activity with more raw material extractions, more throughput and more consumption in material terms. Any gains in effi ciency achieved through technological
advances were offset by this strong growth in demand. And even if domestic activities are strictly regulated – as, e.g. is the case for air pollution in western countries –
global impacts are likely to rise further if policies do not address the issue of impacts
embodied in trade. Kanemoto et al. ( 2014 ) have shown that emissions of air pollutants (SO 2 and NO x ) have been rising rapidly in developing countries, where regulation is missing or patchy. Parts of these emissions are embodied in exports to
developing countries. In general, exports from developing and low-income nations
are more ecologically intensive for GHG emissions, water, scarcity-weighted water,
air pollution, threatened species, biomass, total material fl ow and ecological footprint than those from developed nations (Moran et al. 2013 ). This has been confi rmed for SO 2 by Grether and Mathys ( 2013 ) who argue that trade imbalances tend
to aggravate, rather than alleviate existing asymmetries in pollution intensities.
Policies aimed at increasing the sustainability of production and consumption
need to go beyond domestic regulation and also target production technologies
employed abroad. International cooperation on reducing trade-embodied and total
impacts worldwide is the only way to tackle unsustainability at the national scale.
4 Arto et al. ( 2014 ) estimated the net emissions avoided (NEA) by Spain through trade between
1995 and 2007 and found that a domestic technology assumption (DTA) based on physical values
results in a three times higher estimate of NEA than a DTA based on monetary values. See also
Tukker et al. ( 2013 ) for a discussion on how the DTA effects the estimation of CO 2 emissions
embodied in imports to Europe.
8 Impacts Embodied in Global Trade Flows
enabled and reinforced an increased exploitation of resources. Was it not for trade,
many well-endowed countries would have extracted less materials for their own
consumption.
Some studies have tried to quantify the effects of trade on GHG emissions. Using
the domestic production assumption, López et al. ( 2013a ) found that 1.1 Gt CO 2
were avoided trough trade between seven world regions in 2009, representing a
reduction of 18 % of embodied emissions embodied in trade or 4.4 % of global
production emissions. But according to Arto and Dietzenbacher ( 2014 ), the increase
in trade at the global level and associated embodied emissions between 1995 and
2008 had little effect on total global GHG emissions. This was because ‘Although
domestically produced goods have been substituted by imports, the production
abroad was on average as emission intensive as the production at home’ (Arto and
Dietzenbacher 2014 , p. 5393).
For individual countries, the balance can be positive or negative, depending on
the relative carbon intensity of their domestic production compared to the main
trading partners. Trade between Spain and China , for example, is said to have
increased global emissions by 30 Mt CO 2 in 2005 (López et al. 2013b ). Arto et al.
( 2014 ), on the other hand, assert that overall Spain has been avoiding emissions
through trade between 1995 and 2007.
4
Undoubtedly, trade has had many economic and social benefi ts. Yet the economic growth spurred by trade has led to a corresponding rapid growth in physical
activity with more raw material extractions, more throughput and more consumption in material terms. Any gains in effi ciency achieved through technological
advances were offset by this strong growth in demand. And even if domestic activities are strictly regulated – as, e.g. is the case for air pollution in western countries –
global impacts are likely to rise further if policies do not address the issue of impacts
embodied in trade. Kanemoto et al. ( 2014 ) have shown that emissions of air pollutants (SO 2 and NO x ) have been rising rapidly in developing countries, where regulation is missing or patchy. Parts of these emissions are embodied in exports to
developing countries. In general, exports from developing and low-income nations
are more ecologically intensive for GHG emissions, water, scarcity-weighted water,
air pollution, threatened species, biomass, total material fl ow and ecological footprint than those from developed nations (Moran et al. 2013 ). This has been confi rmed for SO 2 by Grether and Mathys ( 2013 ) who argue that trade imbalances tend
to aggravate, rather than alleviate existing asymmetries in pollution intensities.
Policies aimed at increasing the sustainability of production and consumption
need to go beyond domestic regulation and also target production technologies
employed abroad. International cooperation on reducing trade-embodied and total
impacts worldwide is the only way to tackle unsustainability at the national scale.
4 Arto et al. ( 2014 ) estimated the net emissions avoided (NEA) by Spain through trade between
1995 and 2007 and found that a domestic technology assumption (DTA) based on physical values
results in a three times higher estimate of NEA than a DTA based on monetary values. See also
Tukker et al. ( 2013 ) for a discussion on how the DTA effects the estimation of CO 2 emissions
embodied in imports to Europe.
8 Impacts Embodied in Global Trade Flows