Research on the carbon transfer and carbon equity at provincial level of China based on MRIO model of 31 provinces

The 2012 multi-regional input-output table with 31 provincial regions and 16 industries of China in the paper has been developed based on the MRIO model. Meanwhile, the carbon emissions of 31 provinces in China from the perspective of producer and consumer responsibility and the carbon transfer embodied in inter-provincial trade have been calculated in this paper. On this basis, the inter-provincial carbon equity was analyzed by the relationship between the embodied net transfer of carbon emissions and GDP, the pollution terms of trade and the carbon Gini coefficient respectively. The results showed that the provincial carbon emissions from the perspective of producer and consumer responsibility vary significantly because of the differences of economic development level, resource endowment, industrial structure, energy structure, etc. In addition to this, a tendency of carbon emissions' net transfer has been showed from the western or less developed provinces to those with high economic development level. Carbon inequality between China's 31 provinces in inter-provincial trade was obvious. Some developed provinces not only let other provinces bear part of their own carbon emissions, but also obtain net GDP input from other provinces and their terms of trade of pollution is less than 1, which means they are in a more dominant position in the carbon emission space allocation and economic benefits than those western provinces which not only undertake part of carbon emissions for other provinces, but also lose their GDP and their terms of trade of pollution are more than 1. From the perspective of consumer responsibility, the 31 provinces of China's carbon Gini was 0.24 in 2012, and reaches 0.31 from the perspective of producer responsibility. It was indicated that the inequality of spatial distribution of carbon emissions among provinces in China has been enhanced under the perspective of producer responsibility. © 2020, Editorial Board of China Environmental Science. All right reserved.