How responsible is a region for its carbon emissions? An empirical general equilibrium analysis

Turner, Karen and Munday, Max and McGregor, Peter and Swales, John (2012) How responsible is a region for its carbon emissions? An empirical general equilibrium analysis. Ecological Economics, 79. 70–78. ISSN 0921-8009 (http://www.management.stir.ac.uk/research/economic...)

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Abstract

Targets for CO2 reduction tend to be set in terms of the amount of pollution generated within the borders of a given region or nation. That is, under a "production accounting principle". However, in recent years there has been increased public and policy interest in the notion of a carbon footprint, or the amount of pollution generated globally to serve final consumption demand within a region or nation. That is, switching focus to a "consumption accounting principle". However, this paper argues that a potential issue arising from the increasing focus on consumption-based "carbon footprint" type measures is that while regional CO2 generation embodied in export production is attributed outside of the region (i.e. to the carbon footprints of other regions/nations), regional consumers are likely to benefit from such production. Moreover, where there is a geographical and supply chain gap between producers and final consumers, it may be difficult to identify precisely „whose‟ carbon footprint emissions should be allocated to.

ORCID iDs

Turner, Karen, Munday, Max, McGregor, Peter ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1221-7963 and Swales, John;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)