Trade-Embodied Carbon Emissions in China's Manufacturing Industry Based on the MRIO Model

With the rapid development of the economy in China, as early as 2013, China had overtaken the United States as the largest trader of goods. According to the OECD database, since joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), carbon emissions from manufacturing trade have accounted for more than 80% of all sectors in China. Reducing carbon emissions from manufacturing trade can effectively alleviate the carbon emission challenges faced by China. This study constructs a Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) model to estimate the scale of carbon emissions embodied in China's manufacturing trade from 2012 to 2018, and analyzes the differences in carbon emissions among various manufacturing sectors. The results show that between 2012 and 2018, China's manufacturing export trade embodied carbon decreased while import trade embodied carbon increased, with the basic metals sector contributing significantly. Further analysis indicates that the proportion of carbon emissions from intermediate product exports is more than half and is on the rise, while the proportion of direct import of intermediate products and indirect trade energy consumption in the import trade embodied carbon has declined. China, as the "world's factory," has undertaken a large amount of carbon emissions caused by intermediate product trade from developed countries.