Final production-based emissions of regions in China

Existing studies focus on either direct emissions of each province in China using production-based accounting (i.e. direct emitters) or emissions caused by the final consumption of each province using consumption-based accounting (i.e. final consumers), but overlook provinces whose final sales drive large amounts of upstream emissions (i.e. final producers). Improving the production efficiency of the latter can help to reduce national emissions. Here we use a final production-based accounting framework to identify critical final producers. Results show that the major final producers leading to China’s emissions are Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, which are the major manufacturing centers in China. China should encourage the production efficiency improvement of dominant firms in industries of these provinces. The final production-based accounting framework can also help to define and allocate emission responsibilities of Chinese provinces. It can complement production-based and consumption-based accounting frameworks to guide environmental policy-making in China.