Account balance of CO2 on Earth

By: Alejandra Aguilera

Figure 1: Different types of CO2 producers used by people

There is an agreement within population that a measurement of pollutants and global consumption is necessary in order to have conscience of how much are humans affecting their environment. A study conducted globally measured the amount of composition and production of capital goods used by the population in order to create a better an easier life style. Capital goods such as infrastructure, industry productions, as well as regular household consumption (regular use of capital goods in everyday life). Researchers used database known as EXIOBASE to find out the percentage of carbon dioxide produced by the use of these machinery. It was found that China, Brazil and Mexico were the largest relative increase of CO2 in a time lapse of 2 years. Brazil increased by 57% and Mexico 45%. However, China is standing as the major purchaser of capital goods which creates a 60% increased of carbon dioxide in the environment. A vector of residual capital was presented in order to facilitate the yearly emission accounts. This will advance environmental sustainability by the decreasing of global impacts and the realizing of carbon dioxide through the reduction of capital goods manufactured, once industries are aware of how much its company is affecting global warming by the releasing of CO2. A trade-off found in this study was the decreasing of economy if countries stop the global market with each other, which will also affect lifestyle of humans.

Reference

Sodersten, Carl-Johan H., Wood, Richard., Hertwich, Edgar G. 2018. Endogenizing

Capital in MRIO Models: The Implications for Consumption-Based Accounting.
Environ. Sci. Technol. pp A-J.