Interprovincial inequality between economic benefit and carbon footprint: Perspective from China's Construction industry

Trade between regions not only brings about the exchange of goods and services but also leads to the transfer of emissions. As one of the larger emitting industries, the unequal exchange between environmental costs and economic benefits embodied in trade of the Construction industry has rarely been quantified. This paper applied a multi-regional input-output model to quantify the Construction-related carbon footprint (CF) and carbon emission flows among Chinese provinces. Subsequently, a regional environmental index was built to investigate the unbalanced exchange between Construction-related environmental costs and economic benefits embodied in the interprovincial trade. We found that the provincial per capita CF of Construction was unevenly distributed, with wealthier coastal regions generally having larger CF than poor inland regions. Compared with inland provinces, coastal ones have gained more economic benefits and lower environmental pressure. For example, over 75% of Construction-related carbon emissions in wealthier provinces (Beijing and Shanghai) were outsourced, while 60% of the value-added triggered by these provinces' Construction was retained within the region. However, with the progress of technology and the optimization of trade structure, the REI index decreased by about 30% during 2012–2017. This inequality problem gradually alleviated. Addressing these inequality issues could provide a basis for developing mitigation strategies across different provinces in the Construction industry.