Pathways of human development and carbon emissions embodied in trade

Steinberger, Julia K., Roberts, J. Timmons, Peters, Glen P. and Baiocchi, Giovanni (2012) Pathways of human development and carbon emissions embodied in trade. Nature Climate Change, 2 (2). pp. 81-85. ISSN 1758-6798

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Abstract

It has long been assumed that human development depends on economic growth, that national economic expansion in turn requires greater energy use and, therefore, increased greenhouse-gas emissions. These interdependences are the topic of current research. Scarcely explored, however, is the impact of international trade: although some nations develop socio-economically and import high-embodied-carbon products, it is likely that carbon-exporting countries gain significantly fewer benefits. Here, we use new consumption-based measures of national carbon emissions to explore how the relationship between human development and carbon changes when we adjust national emission rates for trade. Without such adjustment of emissions, some nations seem to be getting far better development 'bang' for the carbon 'buck' than others, who are showing scant gains for disproportionate shares of global emissions. Adjusting for the transfer of emissions through trade explains many of these outliers, but shows that further socio-economic benefits are accruing to carbon-importing rather than carbon-exporting countries. We also find that high life expectancies are compatible with low carbon emissions but high incomes are not. Finally, we see that, despite strong international trends, there is no deterministic industrial development trajectory: there is great diversity in pathways, and national histories do not necessarily follow the global trends.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	carbon emission,economic growth,emissions trading,energy use,environmental economics,greenhouse gas,international trade,research work,socioeconomic conditions,sdg 3 - good health and well-being,sdg 8 - decent work and economic growth ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
Depositing User:	Julie Frith
Date Deposited:	31 Jan 2012 13:40
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2024 00:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/36641
DOI:	10.1038/NCLIMATE1371

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