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Provincial and Sector-Level Material Footprints in China

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Provincial and Sector-Level Material Footprints in China Provincial and sector-level material footprints in China Meng Jianga,1, Paul Behrensb,c,1, Tao Wanga,1, Zhipeng Tangd, Yadong Yue, Dingjiang Chena,f, Lin Liua, Zijian Rena, Wenji Zhoug,h, Shengjun Zhui, Canfei Hei, Arnold Tukkerb,j,2, and Bing Zhua,f,h,2 aDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; bInstitute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands; cLeiden University College, Leiden University, The Hague, 2595 DG The Hague, The Netherlands; dKey Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; eSchool of Business, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China; fInstitute for Circular Economy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; gDepartment of Manufacturing and Civil Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2815 Gjøvik, Norway; hEnergy Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria; iCollege of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; and jStrategic Business Analysis, The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, 2595 DA Den Haag, The Netherlands Edited by Karen C. Seto, Yale University, New Haven, CT, and approved November 11, 2019 (received for review February 24, 2019) High-income countries often outsource material demands to poorer a framework to encourage high-quality development that maintains countries along with the associated environmental damage. This high GDP growth with low environmental impacts and resource phenomenon can also occur within (large) countries, such as China, use, as opposed to the previous high-speed growth paradigm (5). which was responsible for 24 to 30% of the global material Countries use very different amounts of material resources footprint (MF) between 2007 and 2010. Understanding the distri- depending on their material endowment, population, economic bution and development of China’s MF is hence critical for resource structure, and income level. While higher-income countries efficiency and circular economy ambitions globally. Here we present typically have higher material footprints (MFs), these countries a comprehensive analysis of China’s MF at the provincial and generally extract proportionally fewer materials from their own sectoral levels. We combine provincial-level input–output data environments and instead import them from lower-income coun- with sector- and province-specific trade data, detailed material ex- tries either directly or embodied in goods. This often drives en- traction data, and the global input–output database EXIOBASE. We vironmental damage in the outsourced regions (1, 6–10). The find that some provinces have MFs equivalent to medium-sized, high- same phenomenon can happen within countries. For instance, income countries and limited evidence of material decoupling. within China the developed coastal regions import resources and Lower-income regions with high levels of material extraction can environmental damage from the less developed western and have an MF per capita as large as developed provinces due to much central provinces (11–15). A comparative analysis of how regions SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE higher material intensities. The higher-income south-coastal prov- with different levels of development within countries drive re- inces have lower MF per capita than equally developed provinces. source use would provide considerable insight into how resource This finding relates partly to differences in economic structure but efficiency can be improved (7, 8). indicates the potential for improvement across provinces. Investment Against this background, we examine the MF of China across via capital formation is up to 4 times more resource-intensive than provinces. The MF is a measure of the total resources required consumption and drives 49 to 86% of provincial-level MFs (the Orga- by the economy, including both consumption and capital nisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average is 37%). Resource-efficient production, efficient use of capital goods/ Significance infrastructure, and circular design are essential for reductions in China’s MF. Policy efforts to shift to a high-quality development model may reduce material intensities, preferably while avoiding China has undergone unprecedented increases in material de- the further outsourcing of high-intensity activities to other provinces velopment and by 2010 drove 30% of the global material ’ or lower-income countries. footprint (MF). Understanding China s MF distribution and development is critical for resource efficiency and circular – material footprint | environmentally extended multiregional input–output economy ambitions globally. We combine a provincial input – (EE-MRIO) | subnational | China output table (IOT), province-specific import export statistics, a global IOT, and detailed extraction data to assess sector-specific — ∼ and province-specific MFs in China. Capital investment crucial lobal resource extraction has risen to 80 to 90 billion tons to China’s development—is up to 4 times more resource- Gper year over the last decade. This may double to 190 billion intensive than consumption and comprises 49 to 86% of pro- tons per year by 2060 under a historical trends scenario (1). To vincial MF. We find large differences in MF per capita across date, this resource use is largely linear in nature. That is, materials provinces, even among those with similar development char- are extracted, refined, used, and then disposed of (2). It is widely acteristics. Findings indicate the need for improved under- acknowledged that a transition to a more resource-efficient, standing of material developments in other emerging countries circular economy is essential to avoid tensions over access to in the 21st century. resources and to ensure that economic development is within planetary limits (1). Given the size of its economy and related Author contributions: A.T. and B.Z. designed research; M.J., T.W., Z.T., Y.Y., D.C., L.L., Z.R., material use, China plays a crucial role. A single province can have a S.Z., and C.H. performed research; M.J., P.B., T.W., Z.T., Y.Y., D.C., S.Z., and C.H. contrib- uted new reagents/analytic tools; M.J., P.B., T.W., Z.T., Y.Y., D.C., L.L., Z.R., W.Z., A.T., and similar population, gross domestic product (GDP), and environ- B.Z. analyzed data; and M.J., P.B., T.W., Y.Y., W.Z., A.T., and B.Z. wrote the paper. mental footprint as medium-sized, high-income countries. For in- The authors declare no competing interest. stance, Guangdong’s GDP in 2010 was equivalent to 81% of that of This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. the Netherlands, with a population slightly smaller than Mexico This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- (https://databank.worldbank.org/home.aspx). China adopted the NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). Circular Economy Promotion Law (3) in 2009, and in the 12th 1M.J., P.B., and T.W. contributed equally to this work. Five-Year Plan (2011 to 2015) set a target to increase resource 2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: [email protected] or productivity by 15% [defined asGDP divided by the domes- [email protected]. ticmaterial consumption (DMC) of 14 main resources (4)]. The This article contains supporting information online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/ Chinese government has also identified that development has been doi:10.1073/pnas.1903028116/-/DCSupplemental. “unbalanced and inadequate.” The government has implemented www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1903028116 PNAS Latest Articles | 1of7 Downloaded by guest on October 2, 2021 investments. In contrast to other indicators such as those derived A Material footprint of provinces from economy-wide material flow analysis (EW-MFA), the MF 2.4 % 67% 71 73% 65% 64% does not record the physical movement of materials within and 1.6 % % 69% % 71% % 75 %49 67% % 66% 79 72 MF(Gt) 79 %61 55% 73% 67% 71% % 0.8 81 73% 71% 67% 73% 70% 68 among countries but describes the link between the beginning of 86% 67% 69%79% a production chain (where raw materials are extracted from the 0.0 Jilin Hebei Hubei Anhui Gansu Fujian environment) and its end (where a product or service is consumed) Henan Hunan Shanxi Hainan Tianjin Jiangxi Beijing Jiangsu Yunnan Qinghai Ningxia Sichuan Shaanxi Guangxi Guizhou Xinjiang Zhejiang Liaoning – Shanghai (16 18). Until this point, the MF has been used mainly at the Shandong Chongqing Guangdong Heilongjiang country level since data limitations have precluded subnational InnerMongolia analysis (19). To obtain a subnational database for China, we first NE NC EC SC YL YT SW NW created a material extraction database covering 29 types of resources Capital investment Consumption _% proportion of capital investment in MF in the 30 Chinese provinces. These become material extensions to B Per capita material footprint and GDP ’ – 40 80 China s intraprovincial multiregional input output (MRIO) data- 30 60 base with enhanced detail in resource-extracting sectors. Using a 20 40 unique customs database processed for use with MRIO analysis, we 10 20 MF/cap(ton) 0 0 ng embedded the Chinese provincial MRIO database in the global (thousand yuan) a Jilin Hebei Hubei inghai Anhui Gansu Fujian Henan Hunan Shanxi Hainan Tianjin MRIO EXIOBASE, allowing us to trace how each sector in each Jiangxi Beijing Jiangsu Yunnan Q Ningxia Sichuan Shaanxi Guizhou Guangxi Xinjiang Zhejiang Liaoning P/cap Shanghai Shandong province trades with other countries globally. This approach resulted Chongqing Guangdong GD Heilongji in an MRIO model for 2007 and 2010 that includes 48 economic InnerMongolia ’ NE NC EC SC YL YT SW NW sectors, 78 regions (China s 30 provinces along with 48 world Biomass Fossil fuels Metal Nonmetal GDP/cap countries and regions), and 29 material extensions (for full details, C Per capita DE, MF_IM, MF_EX and MF see Materials and Methods and SI Appendix, sections 2.2–2.5).
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