Environmental Accounting and globalisation
Environmental accounting methods are facing challenges from globalization. Firstly, we analyze how the main methods are currently answering to societal expectations and how they deal with these challenges. We develop an innovative specific analytical framework to perform this evaluation. Then, we propose a global model integrating several constraints resulting from these challenges. This model combines i) a multi-regional input-output model, describing goods and services production, consumption and trade as well as induced emissions, ii) a pollutant transport model including human exposure and iii) an environmental impact model. We apply this model to provide the first quantification of the environmental health impacts from particulate matter (PM2.5) induced by the consumption of OECD economies in the rest of the world, based on a life cycle perspective. We then apply the global input-output model to analyze the potential interest of EU carbon tariffs. We finally propose a new type of structural analysis and apply it to Chinese carbon emissions. The countries inducing these emissions through their consumption, i.e. for the production of exported goods and services including supply chains, are identified. Based on this analysis, we propose an international sharing scheme of the de-carbonization costs of China, as discussed during the preparation of the Copenhagen Climate Conference.
