Growth in emission transfers via international trade from 1990 to 2008

From 1990 to 2008, CO2 emissions in developed countries have stabilized, but emissions in developing countries have doubled. This project developed a trade-linked global database for CO2 emissions covering 113 countries and 57 economic sectors in response to the hypothesis that stabilization in developed countries is partially because they increasingly import rather than produce the goods and service that contribute to CO2 emissions. The numeric results of this database show that emissions from the production of traded goods have increased from 20% of global emissions in 1990 to 26% in 2008, suggesting that international trade should be factored in and monitored when analyzing who emits what.