Work

An open-access web application to visualise countries’ and regions’ carbon footprints using Sankey diagrams

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Consumption-based carbon assessments are essential for evaluating climate change responsibility. However, the results vary greatly depending on the scope chosen, making them confusing to non-expert readers and hindering their use for policymaking. This study aims to shed light on all the possible ways to calculate carbon footprints and on the implications of choosing one method over another. Integrating emissions associated with capital goods in the global multi-regional input-output database EXIOBASE, we calculate carbon footprints for 49 world regions between 1995 and 2019 and build an interactive, open access, visual web application representing all possible scopes as Sankey diagrams. We show that the ranking of carbon footprints across regions, and thus the national responsibility for ecological breakdown, change significantly depending on the scope chosen. Our results further underline the need to include capital emissions in input-output models to better assess the large inequality in international carbon footprints.

Source: Communications Earth & Environment

DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01378-8