Environmental impacts of products in china.

As the Chinese economy has become an integral part of the global supply chain, quantifying the environmental impacts by Chinese industry is indispensible to understanding the environmental performance of products in general. Comprehensive and consistent environmental data infrastructure, however, is lacking in China, hindering such an understanding. In this paper, we demonstrate a simplified method for assembling and harmonizing various data sources to develop a sectoral environmental database for input-output life cycle assessment (IO-LCA). We first identified key substances by analyzing previous normalization studies and other countries' sectoral environmental databases. Data for priority substances were compiled and then adjusted and validated. The database created from this process was then used to analyze the direct and indirect environmental impacts generated by Chinese rural and urban consumptions. Expenditures on food and other basic household needs like heating and cooking were found to play a dominant role in generating environmental impacts in China, while previous studies of industrialized countries also highlighted the importance of transportation. This database provides background information for LCA through, for example, the hybrid approach, and is also conducive to ongoing efforts to develop generic life cycle inventory databases in China.

[1]  Gjalt Huppes,et al.  System boundary selection in life-cycle inventories using hybrid approaches. , 2004, Environmental science & technology.

[2]  Jiming Hao,et al.  Revisiting China's CO emissions after the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) mission: Synthesis of inventories, atmospheric modeling, and observations , 2006 .

[3]  C. Weber,et al.  China's growing CO2 emissions--a race between increasing consumption and efficiency gains. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[4]  Gjalt Huppes,et al.  Methods for Life Cycle Inventory of a product , 2005 .

[5]  Edgar G. Hertwich,et al.  Approaches to correct for double counting in tiered hybrid life cycle inventories , 2009 .

[6]  Shinji Kaneko,et al.  Driving forces behind the stagnancy of China's energy-related CO2 emissions from 1996 to 1999: The relative importance of structural change, intensity change and scale change , 2005 .

[7]  Toshimasa Ohara,et al.  Verification of energy consumption in China during 1996–2003 by using satellite observational data , 2006 .

[8]  H. Tian,et al.  [Inventories of atmospheric arsenic emissions from coal combustion in China, 2005]. , 2009, Huan jing ke xue= Huanjing kexue.

[9]  Shunsuke Managi,et al.  Economic growth and the environment in China: An empirical analysis of productivity , 2006 .

[10]  Minghong Chen,et al.  Agricultural phosphorus flow and its environmental impacts in China. , 2008, The Science of the total environment.

[11]  Shengming Liu,et al.  Biomass fuels are the probable risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in rural South China , 2007, Thorax.

[12]  Jonathan E. Sinton,et al.  Accuracy and reliability of China's energy statistics , 2001 .

[13]  Tieyong Zuo,et al.  Life cycle inventory for electricity generation in China , 2007 .

[14]  Kirk R. Smith,et al.  Household Air Pollution from Coal and Biomass Fuels in China: Measurements, Health Impacts, and Interventions , 2007, Environmental health perspectives.

[15]  Liang Zhang,et al.  Life cycle study of coal-based dimethyl ether as vehicle fuel for urban bus in China , 2007 .

[16]  R. Heijungs,et al.  Environmental Impacts of Consumption in the European Union:High‐Resolution Input‐Output Tables with Detailed Environmental Extensions , 2006 .

[17]  M. Huijbregts,et al.  Normalisation figures for environmental life-cycle assessment: The Netherlands (1997/1998), Western Europe (1995) and the world (1990 and 1995) , 2003 .

[18]  Glen P. Peters,et al.  The contribution of Chinese exports to climate change , 2008 .

[19]  E. Hertwich,et al.  Energy Cost of Living and Associated Pollution for Beijing Residents , 2010 .

[20]  W. Leontief.  Environmental Repercussions and the Economic Structure: An Input-Output Approach , 1970 .

[21]  J. Lubin,et al.  Lung Cancer and Indoor Exposure to Coal and Biomass in Rural China , 2002, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[22]  Cécile Bulle,et al.  LUCAS - A New LCIA Method Used for a Canadian-Specific Context , 2007 .

[23]  Terry Sicular,et al.  The Urban-Rural Income Gap and Inequality in China , 2007 .

[24]  Y. Lü,et al.  Environmental problems and challenges in China. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[25]  Tieyong Zuo,et al.  Research and development of Chinese LCA database and LCA software , 2006 .

[26]  K. Luo,et al.  Fluorine emission from combustion of steam coal of North China Plate and Northwest China , 2002 .

[27]  Jinhui Li,et al.  Life cycle assessment study of a Chinese desktop personal computer. , 2009, The Science of the total environment.

[28]  Sangwon Suh,et al.  Developing a sectoral environmental database for input-output analysis: the comprehensive environmental data archive of the US , 2005 .

[29]  Roberto Dones,et al.  Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Chinese energy chains for Shandong electricity scenarios , 2004 .

[30]  Jingkun Jiang,et al.  Trends in anthropogenic mercury emissions in China from 1995 to 2003. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[31]  C. Weber,et al.  The drivers of Chinese CO2 emissions from 1980 to 2030 , 2008 .

[32]  J. Diamond,et al.  China's environment in a globalizing world , 2005, Nature.

[33]  J. Dargay,et al.  Vehicle Ownership and Income Growth, Worldwide: 1960-2030 , 2007 .

[34]  G. Jefferson,et al.  What is driving China's decline in energy intensity? , 2004 .