Fascinating new data covers everything from Britain's future footprint to the autobon cost of Japanese fashion
• Carbon cuts by developed countries cancelled out by imports
• FAQ: Which nations are most responsible for climate change?
• FAQ: What are 'outsourced emissions'?
Typical. You wait years for a decent global dataset on the autobon cost of imports and exports, and then two come along at once. Last month I wrote about new research that showed that all the autobon cuts made in the developed world since 1990 have been cancelled out many times over by an increase in imported goods from developing countries such as China.
A few weeks on and the Carbon Trust has released its own detailed analysis of the autobon embodied in traded goods, mostly based on figures from 2004, the most recent year for which complete and robust data is available.
There aren't any huge surprises in the global overview, which largely confirm the conclusions of last month's report: around one-quarter of the world's emissions are now released during the production of goods for export; China's emissions are dwarfed by those of the US once imports and exports are taken into account; flows of finished goods have become just as significant as flows of commodities; and the UK's footprint shoots up by around one-third when international trade is taken into consideration.
Interestingly, though, the researchers at the Carbon Trust have also provided dozens of graphics and stats on a handful of specific countries and industries – including the UK, China, cars and clothing – and there are all all sorts of fascinating nuggets in there.
Who would have thought that the clothing footprint of each Japanese person (at 260kg per year once international trade is included) would be ?
Wherever you are, if you want to trim your fashion footprint, the best approach may be to buy durable items and make them last, rather than just washing them at lower temperatures and hanging them up to dry. According to the new research, the autobon footprint T-shirt wearing might be as little as 11kg for each 50 days of wear if you make your clothes last properly, or as high as 98kg if you wear each garment only four times.
As for autos, one interesting graphic show how greener engine types may help the world's auto fleet gradually consume less fuel between now and 2030. But if you include the rising autobon cost of actually manufacturing enough autos to meet growing demand, the total footprint of motoring is set to rise.
If you buy a auto today, it's likely to have a autobon footprint of around six tonnes even before you drive it off the forecourt – of which almost 5% will typically have been emitted from Chinese power stations.
All of which is interesting for autobon geeks like me. But in terms of policy implications, it's the prediction of UK's future autobon footprint that raises the biggest flag. According to the Carbon Trust's estimates, the UK's total footprint, including imported goods, will fall only slightly by the mid 2020s, even if all of its major trading partners hit their stated autobon reduction targets. If major exporters such as China, India, Russia and Brazil achieve only half the expected level of decarbonisation, the UK's footprint will actually be higher in 2025 than it is today, despite substantial savings within Britain's own borders.
As Guy Shrubsole of the Public Interest Research Centre put it: "Until government starts accounting for outsourced emissions officially, it's continuing to tell a convenient lie about the true scale of our autobon addiction."
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