Consumption Pattern, Trade and Greenhouse Gas Leakage in India
Environment and development Economics Vol. 9, No. 3
Posted: 26 Aug 2008
Date Written: 2004
Abstract
The policy discussions for sharing the global responsibility of abatement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by individual countries take account neither of the pattern of their final consumption nor of the role of globalisation through trade in the leakage of GHGs across national boundaries. This paper gives the methodology of estimating the total emissions of a GHG, which is imputable to the consumption pattern of a country and the effect of trade on the net leakage of such gas. The paper estimates the effect of trade on the net leakage of carbon dioxide and methane from India. It shows a significant net leakage of carbon dioxide from India for the observed consumption pattern in the nineties. In spite of the difficulty of application of the method of estimating the leakage due to data constraints regarding regularly updated input-output tables for the different countries, the results point to the necessity of using some policy measure to influence globally the preference structure of the people in favour of an ecofriendly consumption pattern.
Keywords: Greenhouse effect, Trade, Input-output, ecofriendly consumption pattern
JEL Classification: C13, C67, F13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation