CR 69:247-259 (2016)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/cr01414

ABSTRACT: Urban economies rely on the factors of production (labor, capital, raw materials) and commodities (or services) provided from domestic and foreign markets. This causes environmental pollution in domestic and foreign areas generated by demand that results from urban development. Input-output analyses have been widely used to estimate urban environmental pollution. However, most previous studies adopted a single-region approach, which assumed that the same production technology was used in local, domestic, and foreign urban production systems. Here we constructed a 3-scale input-output model that assumed different production technologies for these 3 types of production systems to more accurately estimate urban environmental pollution. Due to the service-dominated economy of Beijing, a 3-scale input-output subsystem model was constructed and applied to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the 3 production systems caused by local service development in Beijing. Specifically, we investigated methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions associated with 3 sources (local production and domestic and foreign imports), 4 components (external, induced, internal, and demand-level components), and 5 demand categories (household consumption, government consumption, investment, domestic exports, foreign exports) of the service sector in Beijing in 2010. Total CH₄ and N₂O emissions from the service sector were estimated to be 5641.25 × 10³ and 674.05 × 10³ t CO₂-equivalent, accounting for 15.20 and 13.39% of the total CH₄ and N₂O emissions from Beijing, respectively. Local production played a major role in emissions, followed by domestic and foreign imports. Our model can isolate the effects of individual sectors on GHG emissions at different scales, helping urban policymakers formulate specific emission-reduction regulations according to different goals.

KEY WORDS: Input–output model · Greenhouse gas · Urban climate  · Service development · Developing economy