Structural decomposition of variations of carbon dioxide emissions for the United States, the European Union and BRIC

The historical responsibility of the countries that have promoted the accumulation of carbon dioxide since the industrial revolution, mainly the United States, Russia and the European Union, and the responsibility of the increase in current emissions of emerging countries like Brazil, India and China, determine the moral duty to reduce and adapt their economies to solve the problem of climate change. Therefore, it is important to measure the variations in carbon dioxide emissions from these countries and the effort made to reduce them. The objective of the study was to decompose the variations of carbon dioxide emissions into technological and final demand effects using the input-output matrix of the United States, the European Union (EU, 27 countries), Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). The results showed that the US and EU decreased their emissions respectively by 12.4% and 5.9%. The US achieved emission reductions mainly due to the intensity effect (sector's own emissions) while the EU by technology effect (production chain's emissions). It was caused by the adoption of new technologies and modifications of the energy matrix. Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) respectively increased their emissions by 13.3%; 2.9%; 68.5% and 121.5%. The BRIC showed efforts to adopt new technologies to reduce emissions. However, changes in the structure and volume of final demand caused positive and superior effects to the technological effects of increasing emissions, especially in India and China. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.