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Reducing CH 4 emissions is a major global challenge, owing to the world-wide rise in emissions and concentration of CH 4 in the atmosphere, especially in the past decade. China has been the greatest contributor to global anthropogenic CH 4 emissions for a long time, but current understanding towards its growing emissions is insufficient. This paper aims to link China's CH 4 emissions during 2005-2012 to their socioeconomic determinants by combining input-output models with structural decomposition analysis from both the consumption and income perspectives. Results show that changes in household consumption and income were the leading drivers of the CH 4 growth in China, while changes in efficiency remained the strongest factor offsetting CH 4 emissions. After 2007, with the global financial crisis and economic stimulus plans, embodied emissions from exports plunged but those from capital formation increased rapidly. The enabled emissions in employee compensation increased steadily over time, whereas emissions induced from firms' net surplus decreased gradually, reflecting the reform on income distribution. In addition, at the sectoral level, consumption and capital formation respectively were the greatest drivers of embodied CH 4 emission changes from agriculture and manufacturing, while employee compensation largely determined the enabled emission changes across all industrial sectors. The growth of CH 4 emissions in China was profoundly affected by the macroeconomic situation and the changes of economic structure. Examining economic drivers of anthropogenic CH 4 emissions can help formulate comprehensive mitigation policies and actions associated with economic production, supply and consumption., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Globalization drives anthropogenic methane (CH 4) emissions from upstream to downstream agents through global supply chains. However, previous studies have overlooked the indirect CH 4 emissions enabled by primary suppliers. In this study, we use the Ghosh Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) model and Structural Decomposition Analysis (SDA) to explore the temporal changes in global income-based CH 4 emissions and decompose the socioeconomic drivers. Our results show that global income-based CH 4 emissions increased by 17.21% from 2001 to 2014, with per capita primary inputs and technology being the two key drivers. Specifically, in China and India, income-based CH 4 emissions were mainly from agriculture, and input structure was responsible for restraining the growth in CH 4 emissions from their agricultural activities. On the other hand, service activities dominated the United States and the European Union, and production output structure was accountable for their emission growth related to service activities. To achieve global CH 4 emission mitigation, key sectors of major economies with high income-based CH 4 emissions should optimize their primary input structures, production output structure, and production technologies from the supply-side. It is crucial to reduce enabled CH 4 emissions in emerging economies, particularly in Asia, through the adjustment of primary input activities. [Display omitted] • Per capita primary inputs and technology dominated global CH 4 emission changes. • Income-based emissions decreased in West & Central Europe and the United States. • Agriculture and mining contributed to the high emissions in most emerging economies. • Production output structure accounted for the growth in service-enabled emissions. • Spatial heterogeneity of drivers of income-based CH 4 emissions was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has characterized geo-economic integrations of world regions via South-South, North-North, and South-North trades, which play a critical role in displacing global greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the global CH 4 emission inventories from the EDGAR database and the global multi-region input-output accounts from the EORA database, this study explores the trade-induced CH 4 emission transfers of 20 geographical regions of the world from 1990 to 2015. Global total CH 4 emissions increased by 19.13% in 2015 compared to 1990, while trade-related emissions increased by 46.28% over the same period. Western Europe, the USA, Japan, Other East Asia, and Mainland China were the largest five importers of embodied CH 4 emissions, while Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, Middle East, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia were the largest five export regions of embodied CH 4 emissions. Substantial agriculture- and energy-related CH 4 emissions were transferred from developed regions to developing regions. The trade between economies from the global south and the global north had undergone positive changes, with the trade structure and transfer path showing a trend of divergence. Among the total CH 4 emissions embodied in international trade, the CH 4 emissions embodied in South-North trade accounted for more than half (55.94–62.72 Tg, 71%–55%) from 1990 to 2015. The CH 4 emissions embodied in the South-South trade accounted for 19%–34% (14.62–39.46 Tg), and the proportion of CH 4 emissions embodied in the North-North trade appeared to be relatively small (10%–11%, 8.05–12.82 Tg) during the period. It is imperative to strengthen South-South, South-North, and North-North cooperation in multilateral trade to jointly cut down the CH 4 emissions among world regions. [Display omitted] • The spatial and temporal evolution of global CH 4 emissions is studied. • The role of geo-economic integration in displacing regional emissions is revealed. • Agriculture- and energy-related CH 4 emission transfer is calculated. • South-South trade of CH 4 emissions rose from 19% to 34% from 1990 to 2015. • South-North trade of CH 4 emissions declined from 71% to 55% during the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]