An overview of energy consumption of the globalized world economy

For the globalized world economy with intensive international trade, an overview of energy consumption is presented by an embodied energy analysis to track both direct and indirect energy uses based on a systems input–output simulation. In 2004, the total amounts of energy embodied in household consumption, government consumption, and investment are 7749, 874, and 2009 Mtoe (million tons of oil equivalent), respectively. The United States is shown as the world’s biggest embodied energy importer (683 Mtoe) and embodied energy surplus receiver (290 Mtoe), in contrast to China as the biggest exporter (662 Mtoe) and deficit receiver (274 Mtoe). Energy embodied in consumption per capita varies from 0.05 (Uganda) to 19.54 toe (Rest of North America). Based on a forecast for 2005–2035, China is to replace the United States as the world’s leading embodied energy consumer in 2027, when its per capita energy consumption will be one quarter of that of the United States.     

Energy embodied in the international trade of China: An energy input–output analysis

Growing international trade has not only positively affected the People’s Republic of China’s (China’s) economic development, but also expanded the exportation of energy embodied in goods during their production. This energy flow out will pose risks to China’s rational utilization of natural resources as well as environmental protection. In this paper, we evaluate the energy embodied in goods produced in China during 1992–2005 and use input–output structural decomposition analysis to identify five key factors causing the changes of energy embodied in exports. (Direct primary energy efficiency, primary energy consumption structure, structure of intermediate inputs, structure of exports, and scale of exports.) For the three sub-periods of 1992–1997, 1997–2002, and 2002–2005, results show that China is a net exporter of energy, and the energy embodied in exports tends to increase over time. The expanding total volume of exports and increasing exports of energy-intensive goods tend to enlarge the energy embodied in exports within all three sub-periods, but these driving forces were offset by a considerable improvement of energy efficiency and changes in primary energy consumption structure from 1992 to 2002 and the effects of structure of intermediate input only in the sub-period from 1992 to 1997. From 2002 to 2005, the sharp augmentation of energy embodied in exports was driven by all the five factors. Our research has practical implications for the Chinese economy. Results of this study suggest that the energy embodied in trade should receive special attentions in energy policies design to limit the energy resource out-flow and pollution generation.     

Analysis of energy embodied in the international trade of UK

Interest in the role embodied energy plays in international trade and its subsequent impact on energy security has grown. As a developed nation, the UK's economic structure has changed from that of a primary producer to that of a primary consumer. Although the UK's energy consumption appears to have peaked, it imports a lot of energy embodied in international trade alongside the more obvious direct energy imports. The UK has seen increasing dependency on imported fossil energy since the UK became a net energy importer in 2005. In this paper an energy input–output model is established to calculate not only the amount of fossil energy embodied in UK's imports and exports, but also the sector and country distributions of those embodied fossil energy. The research results suggest the following: UK's embodied fossil energy imports have exceeded embodied fossil energy exports every year since 1997, UK embodied energy imports through the so-called ‘Made in China’ phenomena are the largest accounting for 43% of total net fossil energy imports. If net embodied fossil energy imports are considered, the gap between energy consumption and production in UK is much larger than commonly perceived, with subsequent implications to the UK's energy security.     

Global overview for energy use of the world economy: Household-consumption-based accounting based on the world input-output database (WIOD)

Globalization has integrated nations into a world economy. Based on the world input-output database (WIOD), this paper explored the energy use of the world economy under a household-consumption-based MRIO (multi-region input-output) accounting scheme. Pertaining to normative economics, the household-consumption-based MRIO accounting scheme corresponds to the value judgement of household consumption being the ultimate driver of the economy, which complements existing accounting methods based on different viewpoints. The energy use associated with the internationally traded products is calculated to be around one-fifth of the global total energy consumption. For China as the largest exporter and also the biggest deficit economy in terms of energy use, its trade imbalance is nearly the summation of that of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. Energy self-sufficiency rates by supply and by demand are respectively proposed. While the United States economy as the largest importer maintains the majority of the energy welfare denoted by the onsite energy use at home, China exports large quantities of energy use abroad. For economies like Germany, South Korea and Taiwan, they could be regarded as hubs that export a considerable amount of energy use abroad and absorb massive energy use from outside simultaneously. For sustainable use of energy resources, economies are suggested to carefully identify their roles in the global trading network of energy use.     

Analysis of changing hidden energy flow in Vietnam

The energy consumption in production process is changing especially in developing countries by substituting technology. Input–output analysis for energy flows has been developing and is one of the best solutions for investigating macroscopic exchanges of both economy and energy. Since each element in the Leontief inverse contains both direct and indirect effects of any change in final demand, to separate those direct and indirect effects, the power series expansion is available. In this work, the changes of embodied energy intensity in Vietnam from 1996 to 2000 were analyzed using the structural decomposition and its power series expansion. By illustrating the change of causal relationship between direct energy consumption and embodied energy consumption, the change of hidden energy flow, which indicates how the changing embodied energy builds up the change of direct energy consumption in every sector, can be seen. In the case study, the rice processing sector, which is one of the important food processing sectors in Vietnam, is focused. By drawing a diagrammatic map for the change of hidden energy flow, it is clarified that in the case of raising embodied energy intensity, cultivation sector and trade and repaired service sector are the main contributors, and, on the contrary, in the case of reducing embodied energy intensity, paper pulp sector is the main contributor.     

Analysis of the energy metabolism of urban socioeconomic sectors and the associated carbon footprints: Model development and a case study for Beijing

Cities consume 80% of the world׳s energy; therefore, analyzing urban energy metabolism and the resulting carbon footprint provides basic data for formulating target carbon emission reductions. While energy metabolism includes both direct and indirect consumptions among sectors, few researchers have studied indirect consumption due to a lack of data. In this study, we used input–output analysis to calculate the energy flows among directly linked sectors. Building on this, we used ecological network analysis to develop a model of urban energy flows and also account for energy consumption embodied by the flows among indirectly linked sectors (represented numerically as paths with a length of 2 or more). To illustrate the model, monetary input–output tables for Beijing from 2000 to 2010 were analyzed to determine the embodied energy consumption and associated carbon footprints of these sectors. This analysis reveals the environmental pressure based on the source (energy consumption) and sink (carbon footprint) values. Indirect consumption was Beijing׳s primary form, and the carbon footprint therefore resulted mainly from indirect consumption (both accounting for ca. 60% of the total, though with considerable variation among sectors). To reduce emissions, the utilization efficiency of indirect consumption must improve.     

Analysis and modeling of active occupancy of the residential sector in Spain: An indicator of residential electricity consumption

The growing energy consumption in the residential sector represents about 30% of global demand. This calls for Demand Side Management solutions propelling change in behaviors of end consumers, with the aim to reduce overall consumption as well as shift it to periods in which demand is lower and where the cost of generating energy is lower. Demand Side Management solutions require detailed knowledge about the patterns of energy consumption. The profile of electricity demand in the residential sector is highly correlated with the time of active occupancy of the dwellings; therefore in this study the occupancy patterns in Spanish properties was determined using the 2009–2010 Time Use Survey (TUS), conducted by the National Statistical Institute of Spain. The survey identifies three peaks in active occupancy, which coincide with morning, noon and evening. This information has been used to input into a stochastic model which generates active occupancy profiles of dwellings, with the aim to simulate domestic electricity consumption. TUS data were also used to identify which appliance-related activities could be considered for Demand Side Management solutions during the three peaks of occupancy.     

Employing electricity-consumption monitoring systems and integrative time-series analysis models: A case study in Bogor,Indonesia

The Paris Agreement calls for maintaining a global temperature less than 2°C above the pre-industrial level and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C. To realize this objective and promote a low-carbon society, and because energy production and use is the largest source of global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, it is important to efficiently manage energy demand and supply systems. This, in turn, requires theoretical and practical research and innovation in smart energy monitoring technologies, the identification of appropriate methods for detailed time-series analysis, and the application of these technologies at urban and national scales. Further, because developing countries contribute increasing shares of domestic energy consumption, it is important to consider the application of such innovations in these areas. Motivated by the mandates set out in global agreements on climate change and low-carbon societies, this paper focuses on the development of a smart energy monitoring system (SEMS) and its deployment in households and public and commercial sectors in Bogor, Indonesia. An electricity demand prediction model is developed for each device using the Auto-Regression eXogenous model. The real-time SEMS data and time-series clustering to explore similarities in electricity consumption patterns between monitored units, such as residential, public, and commercial buildings, in Bogor is, then, used. These clusters are evaluated using peak demand and Ramadan term characteristics. The resulting energy-prediction models can be used for low-carbon planning.     

Energy perspective of Sino-US trade imbalance in global supply chains

The unprecedented global supply chain fragmentation brings an ever-increasing trade imbalance in terms of monetary flows between China and the United States. Associated with the bilateral trade imbalance is the reallocation of resources utilization and environmental stress. In this regard, this study presents an embodied energy model to investigate impacts of Sino-US trade imbalance on global energy use during 2000–2014. Distinguished from previous studies that only evaluate the Sino-US trade based on specific bilateral perspective, this study probes into overall impacts of the Sino-US trade on global primary energy use pattern from the perspective of global supply chains for the first time. A boost to eastbound trade and distinct export industrial structures fuel the unprecedented growth of Sino-US embodied energy trade imbalance, accounting for more than half of the total energy transfers embodied in Sino-US trade. Such imbalance firstly increases sharply from 1956.0 PJ in 2000 to 5265.3 PJ in 2006, followed by a short term decrease to hit a low point at 3267.7 PJ in 2009 because of financial crisis and then a gradual resuscitation with a slower pace in the following years. The exported energy embodied in manufacturing products dominates eastbound flows, whereas energy embodied in agricultural products, technology intensive products and primary energy commodities constitute majority of westbound flows. Due to the dispersed production process in global value chains, more than half of primary energy use embodied in the bilateral trade is geographically exploited in other economies along the supply chain (i.e., Europe, the Middle East and South Asia). Furthermore, security of energy supply is evaluated for the two economies. The results can help predict potential influences of trade conflicts on global energy extraction, illustrating policy implications to make Sino-US trade in line with global energy conservation goals. Considering Sino-US trade's impacts along complex supply chains, distinctive domestic energy conservation measures should give way to global collective and inclusive governance.     

The embodied energy in trade: What role does specialization play?

Many industrialized countries are net importers of embodied energy and emissions, while many developing countries are net exporters. We examine the role of specialization in driving these trade patterns by conducting a spatial index decomposition analysis on the embodied energy in net exports for 41 economies. The results reveal that industrialized countries have generally offshored energy intensive production, which many developing countries specialize in. We find that specialization, on average, makes the biggest contribution, accounting for roughly 50% of a country's embodied energy in net exports. However, other factors, namely energy intensity and the trade balance, combine to make an equally important contribution. In summary, specialization, despite its significant role, is not the only cause of the embodied energy trade patterns observed between industrialized and developing countries.     

Embodied energy and intensity in China’s (normal and processing) exports and their driving forces, 2005-2015

International trade has important impacts on a country’s energy consumption. This paper first uses the time-series (2005–2015) extended input-output database to study China’s embodied energy and intensity in both normal and processing exports. Structural decomposition analysis (SDA) is then applied to analyze the driving forces behind the embodiment changes. The empirical results show that China’s energy embodied in both normal and processing exports first increased in 2005–2008, dropped in 2009 due to the global financial crisis, and then rose again after 2009, and finally dropped in 2014–2015. The embodied energy in trade as a percentage of total energy consumption in China was relatively stable before and after the global financial crisis, at around 28% over the 2005–2008 period, and 22% over the 2009–2015 period. The contribution of the aggregate embodied intensity (AEI) of exports to China’s aggregate energy intensity dropped from 30% in 2005 to 21% in 2015. Among China’s trading partners, the United States, Japan and Korea together accounted for around half of China’s embodied energy and AEI in exports in 2005, but their shares dropped to only one third in 2015. Energy efficiency improvement played the key role in reducing the embodied energy and intensity in China’s exports. Similar analysis can be applied to other regions and indicators.     

Multi-regional input–output model and ecological network analysis for regional embodied energy accounting in China

Chinese regions frequently exchange materials, but regional differences in economic development create unbalanced flows of these resources. In this study, we examined energy by assessing embodied energy consumption to describe the energy-flow structure in China's seven regions. Based on multi-regional monetary input–output tables and energy statistical yearbooks for Chinese provinces in 2002 and 2007, we accounted for both direct and indirect energy consumption, respectively, and the integral input and output of the provinces. Most integral inputs of energy flowed from north to south or from east to west, whereas integral output flows were mainly from northeast to southwest. This differed from the direct flows, which were predominantly from north to south and west to east. This demonstrates the importance of calculating both direct and indirect energy flows. Analysis of the distance and direction traveled by the energy consumption centers of gravity showed that the centers for embodied energy consumption and inputs moved southeast because of the movements of the centers of the Eastern region. However, the center for outputs moved northeast because the movement of the Central region. These analyses provide a basis for identifying how regional economic development policies influence the embodied energy consumption and its flows among regions.     

Embodied carbon dioxide emission at supra-national scale: A coalition analysis for G7, BRIC,and the rest of the world

Presented in this study is an empirical analysis of embodied carbon dioxide emissions induced by fossil fuel combustion for the world divided into three supra-national coalitions, i.e., G7, BRIC, and the rest of the world (ROW), via the application of a multi-region input–output modeling for 2004. Embodied emission intensities for the three coalitions are calculated and compared, with market exchange rate and purchase power parity separately used to investigate the difference between nominal and real production efficiencies. Emissions embodied in different economic activities such as production, consumption, import, and export are calculated and analyzed accordingly, and remarkable carbon trade imbalances associated with G7 (surplus of 1.53 billion tons, or 36% its traded emissions) and BRIC (deficit of 1.37 billion tons, or 51% its traded emissions) and approximate balance with ROW (deficit of 0.16 billion tons, or 3% its traded emissions) are concretely revealed. Carbon leakages associated with industry transfer and international trades are illustrated in terms of impacts on global climate policies. The last but not least, per capita consumption based emissions for G7, BRIC, and ROW are determined as 12.95, 1.53, and 2.22 tons, respectively, and flexible abatement policies as well as equity on per capita entitlement are discussed.     

China’s emissions embodied in exports: How regional and trade heterogeneity matter

Trade facilitates the shifts of emissions from one place to another. Although studies have shown that regionally disaggregated model and model that distinguishes processing exports at the national level are necessary to estimate the embodied emissions in China's exports, no study evaluates this issue by simultaneously taking both regional and trade heterogeneity into account. To fill this gap, we re-estimate the CO₂ emissions embodied in China’s exports at both regional and industrial level, by using the newly-developed inter-regional input-output (IRIOP) model that distinguishes processing trade from other trade at the regional level. Results show that compared to the IRIOP model, the traditional multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model has overestimated the environmental loss from exports by 14%–25% in 2002 and 7%–20% in 2012 for different regions. The largest bias is found in regions and industries with the highest processing export shares. Therefore, the IRIOP model gives more accurate accounting on the regional environmental loss due to national exports and thus is important for establishing effective emission mitigation policies.     

The quantification of the embodied impacts of construction projects on energy,environment, and society based on I–O LCA

With rapid social development and large-scale construction of infrastructure in China, construction projects have become one of the driving forces for the national economy, whose energy consumption, environmental emissions, and social impacts are significant. To completely understand the role of construction projects in Chinese society, this study developed input–output life-cycle assessment models based on 2002, 2005, and 2007 economic benchmarks. Inventory indicators included 10 types of energy, 7 kinds of environmental emissions, and 7 kinds of social impacts. Results show that embodied energy of construction projects in China accounts for 25–30% of total energy consumption; embodied SO₂ emissions are being controlled, and the intensities of embodied NO_x and CO₂ have been reduced. However, given that the construction sector related employment is 17% of the total employment in China, the accidents and fatalities related to the construction sector are significant and represent approximately 50% of the national total. The embodied human and capital investments in science and technology (ST) increased from 2002 to 2007. The embodied full time equivalent (FTE) of each ST person also increased while the personal ST funding and intramural expenditures decreased. This might result from the time lag between RD activities and large-scale implementation.     

Accounting greenhouse gas emissions of food consumption between urban and rural residents in China: a whole production perspective

Food consumption is necessary for human survival. On a global scale, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission related to food consumption accounts for 19%–29% of the total GHG emission. China has the largest population in the world, which is experiencing a rapid development. Under the background of urbanization and the adjustment of the diet structure of Chinese residents, it is critical to mitigate the overall GHG emission caused by food consumption. This study aims to employ a single-region input-output (SRIO) model and a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model to measure GHG emission generated from food consumption in China and compare the contributions of different industrial sectors, uncovering the differences between urban and rural residents and among different provinces (autonomous regions/municipalities), as well as identifying the driving forces of GHG emission from food consumption at a national level. The results indicate that the total GHG emission generated from food consumption in China tripled from 157 Mt CO₂e in 2002 to 452 Mt CO₂e in 2017. The fastest growing GHG emission is from the consumption of other processed food and meat products. Although GHG emissions from both urban and rural residents increased, the gap between them is increasing. Agriculture, processing and manufacture of food, manufacture of chemical and transportation, storage and post services sectors are key sectors inducing food consumption related GHG emissions. From a regional perspective, the top five emission provinces (autonomous regions/municipalities) include Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. Based on such results, policy recommendations are proposed to mitigate the overall GHG emission from food consumption.     

Life-cycle energy analysis of building integrated photovoltaic systems (BiPVs) with heat recovery unit

Building integrated photovoltaic (BiPV) systems generate electricity, but also heat, which is typically wasted and also reduces the efficiency of generation. A heat recovery unit can be combined with a BiPV system to take advantage of this waste heat, thus providing cogeneration. Two different photovoltaic (PV) cell types were combined with a heat recovery unit and analysed in terms of their life-cycle energy consumption to determine the energy payback period. A net energy analysis of these PV systems has previously been performed, but recent improvements in the data used for this study allow for a more comprehensive assessment of the combined energy used throughout the entire life-cycle of these systems to be performed. Energy payback periods between 4 and 16.5 years were found, depending on the BiPV system. The energy embodied in PV systems is significant, emphasised here due to the innovative use of national average input–output (I–O) data to fill gaps in traditional life-cycle inventories, i.e. hybrid analysis. These findings provide an insight into the net energy savings that are possible with a well-designed and managed BiPV system.     

Allocating carbon responsibility: The role of spatial production fragmentation

A number of studies have compared national carbon abatement responsibility under different carbon accounting schemes. However, the difficulty of the shift among different national carbon accounting schemes has rarely been quantitatively evaluated in the literature. Spatial production fragmentation over the recent decades has led to geographical separation among the primary inputs supplying regions, carbon emitting regions, and final consuming regions. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the effects of spatial production fragmentation on the shift from production-based to consumption-based and income-based national carbon accounting. Based on both demand- and supply-driven input-output analytical frameworks, this paper analyses the allocation of carbon responsibility for embodied and enabled emissions along production chains over the period 1995–2009. It was found that as much as 25% of embodied emissions and 20% of enabled emissions crossed national borders more than once in 2009. The shift among different carbon accounting schemes is not only related to the magnitude of trade related emissions but also related to border-crossing frequency associated with emissions embodied in or enabled by international trade. The increasingly fragmented production networks complicate the shift from production-based to consumption-based or income-based accounting and weaken the effectiveness of consumption-based or income-based accounting.     

Output,renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and international trade: Evidence from a panel of 69 countries

This paper uses panel cointegration techniques to examine the causal relationship between output, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, and international trade for a sample of 69 countries during the period 1980–2010. In the short-run, Granger causality tests show that there is a bidirectional causality between output and trade (exports or imports), a bidirectional causality between non-renewable energy and trade, and a one way causality running from renewable energy to trade. In the long-run, a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and trade, is noticed. Our long-run ordinary least squares (OLS), fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimates suggest that renewable, non-renewable energy consumption and trade have a positive and statistically significant impact on economic growth. Our energy policy recommendations are the following: i) any non-renewable energy policy should take into account the importance of international trade, ii) more renewable energy use should be encouraged by national and international competent authorities in order to increase international economic exchanges and promote economic growth without harming the environment, and iii) increasing trade is a good vehicle for renewable energy technology transfer and contributes to increase renewable energy consumption in the long-run, thus contributing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.     

An econometric study of CO2 emissions,energy consumption,income and foreign trade in Turkey

This study attempts to empirically examine the dynamic causal relationships between carbon emissions, energy consumption, income, and foreign trade in the case of Turkey using the time-series data for the period 1960–2005. This research tests the interrelationship between the variables using the bounds testing to cointegration procedure. The bounds test results indicate that there exist two forms of long-run relationships between the variables. In the case of first form of long-run relationship, carbon emissions are determined by energy consumption, income and foreign trade. In the case of second long-run relationship, income is determined by carbon emissions, energy consumption and foreign trade. An augmented form of Granger causality analysis is conducted amongst the variables. The long-run relationship of CO₂ emissions, energy consumption, income and foreign trade equation is also checked for the parameter stability. The empirical results suggest that income is the most significant variable in explaining the carbon emissions in Turkey which is followed by energy consumption and foreign trade. Moreover, there exists a stable carbon emissions function. The results also provide important policy recommendations.