IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-23874-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emission impacts of China’s solid waste import ban and COVID-19 in the copper supply chain

Author

Listed:
  • John Ryter

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Xinkai Fu

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Karan Bhuwalka

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Richard Roth

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Elsa A. Olivetti

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Climate change will increase the frequency and severity of supply chain disruptions and large-scale economic crises, also prompting environmentally protective local policies. Here we use econometric time series analysis, inventory-driven price formation, dynamic material flow analysis, and life cycle assessment to model each copper supply chain actor’s response to China’s solid waste import ban and the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate that the economic changes associated with China’s solid waste import ban increase primary refining within China, offsetting the environmental benefits of decreased copper scrap refining and generating a cumulative increase in CO2-equivalent emissions of up to 13 Mt by 2040. Increasing China’s refined copper imports reverses this trend, decreasing CO2e emissions in China (up to 180 Mt by 2040) and globally (up to 20 Mt). We test sensitivity to supply chain disruptions using GDP, mining, and refining shocks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, showing the results translate onto disruption effects.

Suggested Citation

  • John Ryter & Xinkai Fu & Karan Bhuwalka & Richard Roth & Elsa A. Olivetti, 2021. "Emission impacts of China’s solid waste import ban and COVID-19 in the copper supply chain," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-23874-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23874-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23874-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-23874-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gholami, Alireza & Tokac, Batur & Zhang, Qian, 2024. "Knowledge synthesis on the mine life cycle and the mining value chain to address climate change," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    2. John Ryter & Karan Bhuwalka & Michelena O'Rourke & Luca Montanelli & David Cohen‐Tanugi & Richard Roth & Elsa Olivetti, 2024. "Understanding key mineral supply chain dynamics using economics‐informed material flow analysis and Bayesian optimization," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 28(4), pages 709-726, August.
    3. Karan Bhuwalka & Eunseo Choi & Elizabeth A. Moore & Richard Roth & Randolph E. Kirchain & Elsa A. Olivetti, 2023. "A hierarchical Bayesian regression model that reduces uncertainty in material demand predictions," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(1), pages 43-55, February.
    4. Marashdeh, Hazem & Dhiaf, Mohamed M. & Atayah, Osama F. & Nasrallah, Nohade & Frederico, Guilherme F. & Najaf, Khakan, 2023. "Sensitivity of market performance to social risk index: Evidence from global listed companies in logistics and transportation industry," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-23874-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.