Comércio internacional e emissões: uma análise longitudinal de insumo-produto

Abstract

Since the beginning of industrialization it is possible to observe an increase in the levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by human activities (WTO, 2009). Given this issues, the problem of greenhouse gas (GHG) and related climate change are relevant points today. Discussions began to gain the attention of the world with the Kyoto Protocol and they are in vogue due to the fact that the growth of GHG remained, even with emergence and advancement of climate policies. Moreover, they are in vogue due the sudden globalization of world economies and the expansion of international trade. Thus, this study seeks to make an empirical investigation of the responsibility for CO2 emissions and international trade for the 27 countries of the European Union and 13 other selected countries for the period of 1995-2009. This paper also permeates issues and discussions about the environmental theories and hypotheses involving international trade. The input-output matrices were used for 40 countries plus the “rest of world” for the period of 1995-2009, through the database of WIOD project. The following results can be highlighted: i) the increase of CO2 emissions in developing countries (e.g. Brazil , Russia, India and China) ; ii) the opposing behavior of the USA and BRIC ( Brazil , Russia, India and China), with the exception of India, in terms of net balances of emissions embodied in international trade; iii) evidence that the decrease of CO2 emissions in some countries comes from greater interaction in terms of trade with other countries; iv) the developed countries have an internal production process increasingly less polluting, and contrary to, developing countries have an internal production process more polluting, given the pairing between them. Furthermore, this study, through the different results, makes a discussion on the theory of environmental Kuznets curve, pollution haven effect, pollution haven hypothesis, trade’s patterns between North and South, and others.