Unveiling Carbon Emission Attributions along Sale Chains

Substantial
anthropogenic emissions have resulted in serious environmental
problems in China. Direct emissions and demand-pulled emissions along
the supply chains have been extensively investigated. However, understanding
the mechanism of how the sectoral emission is transferred through
production activities along the sale chains at different production
layers remains a challenge. In this paper, a top-down multilayer emission
attribution model is developed to unveil the metabolism of multilayer
input-driven emissions. For the first time, a diagramming approach
enables the exhaustive depiction of the connections between primary
input attributions and final production attributions, which allows
accurate reallocation of the emission responsibilities to sectors
at different production layers. Individual sale chain paths and supply
chain paths have been extracted and ranked according to the contributions
of emissions. A four-perspective comparison of sectoral emissions
(i.e., direct emissions along sale chains, enabled emissions, direct
emissions along the supply chains, and embodied emissions) is assessed.
We find that at multiple production layers, sectoral direct emissions
along the sale chains differ greatly from direct emissions along the
supply chains. By comprehensively considering providers, consumers,
and producers within a metabolic system, policy-makers should encourage
upstream sectors to improve their cleaner production technologies
and downstream sectors to adjust their industrial structures.