Analysis Of Iron Material Flow And Embodied Carbon Transfer In China’s Trade

In 2016,China produced 808 million tons of crude steel,accounting for 49.6% of the world’s total production.China’s crude steel consumption is 709 million tons,accounting for 43.4% of the world’s total.China imported 1.024 billion tons of iron ore,accounting for 71% of global trade.China is the world’s largest producer,consumer,and trade country.From 2000 to 2016,China had accumulated 8.19 billion tons of crude steel consumption.As a world “processing factory”,China has provided a large number of steel products and iron-containing terminal products to the world.Among them,the export of iron-containing terminal products such as construction steel and mechanical parts accounted for more than 30% of global trade volume.While providing products and services for the world,China also pays a huge environmental price.With the internationalization of commodities and the continuous development of globalization,the transfer of the embodied carbon emissions from China’s iron-containing commodities should be put on a more equitable and reasonable position and recognized by the international community.Especially in the case that China’s iron-produced goods are produced separately from some of their consumption,China should clearly define its own responsibilities and obligations,so that it will be beneficial to China to justify its own reasonable carbon emission reduction benefits and promote China to play a more active role in the global trading system.This article selected 1,874 HS codes for all iron-containing commodities in the United Nations Trade Statistics Agency(UN comtrade)and compiled a total of 70,000 trade data for 2000-2016,and determined the iron content of iron-containing commodities in China(Including the consumption of iron-containing end products at the consumer end),based on the trade volume of each iron-containing commodity collected,the iron substance flow in China’s trade was measured.Based on the iron and steel production technology indicators in the "Environmental Protection Industry Standard of the People’s Republic of China — Steel Industry Clean Production Standards",and based on the calculation method of carbon emissions in the "IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory 2006",the establishment of calculations for all types of iron Commodity carbon emission factor model.The use of iron-containing trade volume and carbon emission coefficients after material flow analysis has estimated the implied carbon in the international trade of iron-bearing commodities in China.The results show that:(1)China plays a very important role in the international trade of iron-bearing commodities;(2)China has been in an implied carbon emission surplus from 2000 to 2016,and China’s carbon emissions in the world’s steel industry have not The adverse impact on the environment caused by exports is significantly offset by imports;(3)China has undertaken a large amount of implied carbon emissions for the United States,South Korea,Vietnam,India,Indonesia,and Italy from 2000 to 2016;(4)Some high-end parts of China Special steel products have a certain gap with developed countries such as Japan.Finally,the policy recommendations are proposed in terms of both trade and environmental protection responsibilities of China’s iron-containing commodities:(1)Improve the export structure of iron-containing commodities;(2)Resolve excess domestic production capacity and shift the regional distribution of trade;(3)Maintain reasonable emission benefits.Pay attention to the problem of implied carbon transfer in trade and try to change the current carbon emission commitment principle;(4)Eliminating domestic backward production capacity and further promoting technological energy saving.