Carbon Embodied in Trade

NZCEE has received funding from MAF to research the greenhouse gas emissions embodied in New Zealand’s international trade. 

This 2-year project includes input from a group of experts from around the world as well as contributions from key New Zealand researchers. 

Preliminary work on this subject was conducted under the FRST-funded 'Ecological Footprint Plus' programme.  Initial results, presented by Robbie Andrew at a conference in Spain, show that emissions embodied in our imports are much lower than those in our exports. Using a "consumer responsibility" approach would add emissions embodied in imports and subtract those in exports, and therefore result in a lower liability for New Zealand. While the Kyoto Protocol does not include emissions embodied in trade in each country's inventory, some parties are negotiating to change this situation to better represent responsibility for global emissions.

Much further work is required to improve the model and the datasets, and to estimate the uncertainties associated with the analysis.

For more information about this research, please contact Robbie Andrew.