Consumption pattern, trade, and greenhouse gas leakage in India

The policy discussions for sharing the global responsibility for abatement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by individual countries take account neither of the pattern of their final consumption nor of the role of globalization 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 1990s. 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 eco-friendly consumption patterns.