Embodied Carbon in the U.S. Manufacturing and Trade

On average, one quarter of the global carbon footprint is embodied in traded goods. These emissions are a growing issue for global efforts to decarbonize the world economy. Embodied emissions in trade are not accounted for by existing greenhouse gas accounting systems. For example, countries only report their domestic carbon emissions (also known as production-based or territorial accounting) to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If the embodied carbon in trade were accounted for and reported, the promising climate trends depicted by many countries would be negated or reversed. For example, many achievements of reducing emissions by developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol would actually appear as emissions outsourced to developing countries. Like many other developed countries, the United States is a net importer of embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in trade.

Global Efficiency Intelligence, LLC has partnered with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to conduct a study to calculate the carbon footprint of various sectors of the U.S. manufacturing using the latest available data and based on that, estimate the embodied carbon in certain manufacturing sector products imported and exported by the U.S.