Research On The Water And Carbon Footprint Of China’s Electricity Consumption Based On MRIO

As China’s economy and society has entered into a new stage of development,the sectors in each province are seeing the increase in electricity consumption year by year.In order to meet the electricity consumption in each province,the electricity sector in each province needs to use water resources to produce electricity and CO2 will be emitted in this process.Also,the electricity sector requires the products and services provided by other sectors to produce the electricity,the production of products and services will use the water resources and emit CO2,which is easy to be ignored.At present,our country is strictly supervising the carbon emssion of every sector so as to achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals,and the carrying out of the water saving policies since the 14th Five-Year Plan has propelled our country to establish the water saving society.Under the circumstance of water saving and carbon emission reduction,it’s of practical significance to figure out the water footprint and carbon footprint of each province’s electricity consumption in our country.Therefore,from the perspective of the whole industrial chain,this paper uses the Multi-regional input-output model to analyse the water footprint and carbon footprint of each province’s(except Tibet,Hongkong,Macao and Taiwan)electricity consumption in our country in 2017,the type of electricity consumption of each province can be divided into two parts,one is that each province consumes the electricity produced by the its own electricity sector,another is that each province consumes the electricity produced by other provinces’electricity sector.The main findings of the paper are as follow:(1)when each province consumes the electricity produced by itself,Sichuan and Jiangsu have the biggest amount of water footprint,which is 82.50 million m3 and 106.90 million m3,Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang have the biggest carbon footprint,which is 66.07 million ton and 71.32 million ton,when each province consumes the electricity produced by other provinces,Hubei and Guizhou have the biggest amount of water footprint,which is 27.74 million m3 and 47.87 m3,Shanxi and Inner Mongolia have the biggest carbon footprint,which is 14.00 milion ton and 40.94 million ton.(2)when each province consumes the electricity generated inside and outside the province,the water footprint and carbon footprint will stay in the province whose electricity sector provides the electricity.(3)There are some rules in the flow of virtual water and virtual carbon caused by the electricity consumption of each province.When each province consumes the electricity generated inside and outside the province,Sichuan and Henan are two main provinces who outflow the most virtual water to other provinces,while Guangdong and Hubei are two main provinces who outflow the most virtual carbon to other provinces.(4)From the perspective of sector,production and distribution of tap water sector and production and distribution of electric power and heat power sector are two main sectors who inflow the most virtual water in each province,while production and distribution of electric power and heat power sector and repair of metal products,machinery and equipment sector are two main sectors who inflow the most virtual carbon in each province;(5)the differences of water and carbon footprint of electricity consumption among provinces depend on the industrial strcuture and resource endowment.Based on the findings,this paper puts forward corresponding policy suggestions in order to reduce the water consumption and carbon emission of China’s electricity consumption:(1)Provinces with high carbon emissions and high water consumption when consuming the electricity should accelerate the upgrading of electricity production technologies to reduce carbon emissions and water consumption in electricity production.(2)each province should give priority to solving the carbon emission and water consumption problems in electricity production of key sectors to improve energy efficiency.(3)Establish an incentive mechanism in order to optimize and upgrade the structure of every province.