2013 年 69 巻 6 号 p. II_383-II_390
This paper focuses on carbon footprints of steel production in China. Following the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, China has promoted energy efficient technological renovation in existing industrial zones as well as by the construction of new environmentally-friendly industrial zones. On the contrary, geographical fragmentation of production in China and East Asia has deepened the interdependency on regional transactions of goods and services that are part of spreading global value chains or vertical specialization. Based on the above background, we attempt to evaluate the multi-regional carbon footprint of steel-related low-carbon technological renovation by using input-output analysis. First, we created a dataset for input coefficient changes in an I-O table, corresponding to the low-carbon technologies that are implemented in the “global sectorial approach” to the steel industry. Second, we set up scenarios to implement a set of low-carbon technologies in the steel sector. Finally, we evaluated backward and forward linkage effects of low-carbon technology transfers in terms of their carbon footprints. As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that: 1) implementation of low-carbon technologies would provide a significant contribution to carbon footprint reduction in steel production; 2) the structures of carbon footprint reduction are different among regions due to variations of multi-regional steel production and consumption linkages; 3) the interdependencies among the different carbon footprints in each region can be used as basic information regarding regional collaboration to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the spreading global value chain.
