Impacts of trade facilitation on greenhouse gas emissions in the Belt and Road Initiative countries

• Published in: Resources, conservation and recycling Vol. 209; p. 107777
• Main Authors: Xiang, Ting, Du, Mingxi, Yang, Lingyu, Wang, Zhaojun, Liu, Qiuyu, Zhong, Honglin, Cui, Qi, Liu, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.10.2024
• Subjects: Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); CGE model; Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; Trade facilitation; Trade facilitation; CGE model; Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
• ISSN: 0921-3449
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107777

•Emissions of diverse greenhouse gases manifest distinct regional and sectoral heterogeneity with trade facilitation.•Economic growth of most BRI countries outstrips the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.•Trade facilitation is more conducive to the decoupling of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from economic development. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) trade facilitation could generate both economic and environmental impacts. Nevertheless, the resulting impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remain unclear. Here we apply a global computable general equilibrium model to simulate the economic changes induced by BRI trade facilitation and thereby assess the GHG emissions burdens within China and the main economic corridors. We show that trade facilitation results in economic improvement at the expense of emissions for most BRI countries. Yet economic growth in these countries has outstripped emissions growth. Especially for countries within the New Eurasian Land Bridge (ELB), most of them even have achieved decoupling of economic growth from emissions under trade facilitation, which is mainly benefited from the decrease of non-CO2 GHG emissions. We stress that non-CO2 GHGs mitigation in more developing regions is essential to achieve an economic-environmental win-win state, in the context of future global trade liberalization.