Environmental-social-economic footprints of consumption and trade in the Asia-Pacific region

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: Yang, Lan, Wang, Yutao, Wang, Ranran, Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír, Almeida, Cecília Maria Villas Bôas de, Jin, Mingzhou, Zheng, Xinzhu, Qiao, Yuanbo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 08-09-2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/844/2175; 704/844/2787; 704/844/4081; 704/844/843; Carbon; Consumption; Economic development; Economic growth; Economic impact; Economics; Emissions; Energy; Energy consumption; Engineering; Environmental effects; Environmental impact; Exports; Globalization; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Groundwater; Humanities and Social Sciences; Input output; International trade; Labor; Laboratories; multidisciplinary; Natural resources; Particulate matter; Productivity; Regional development; Regions; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Socioeconomics; Sustainable development; Trade agreements; Value added; Asia
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18338-3

Asia-Pacific (APAC) has been the world’s most dynamic emerging area of economic development and trade in recent decades. Here, we reveal the significant and imbalanced environmental and socio-economic effects of the region’s growths during 1995–2015. Owing to the intra-regional trade of goods and services, APAC economies grew increasingly interdependent in each other’s water and energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) and PM
2.5
emissions, and labor and economic productivity, while the environmental and economic disparity widened within the region. Furthermore, our results highlight APAC’s significant role in globalization. By 2015, APAC was engaged in 50–71% of the virtual flows of water, energy, GHG, PM
2.5
, labor, and value added embodied in international trade. While the region’s final demand and trade grew less resource- and emissions-intensive, predominantly led by China’s transformations, APAC still lags behind global averages after two decades. More joint efforts of APAC economies and attention to sustainable transformation are needed.
The environmental and socio-economic implications of the growth in welfare and trade in Asia-Pacific (APAC) remain unclear. Here the authors show that over the past two decades (1995–2015), owing to intraregional trade, the APAC economies have grown increasingly interdependent in natural resource use, air emissions, and labor and economic productivity.