Spatial structural decomposition analysis with a focus on product lifetime

Abstract

This study estimates the carbon footprint associated with global final demand for automobiles and petroleum of the U.S.A., Germany, and Japan, which accounted for 31% of the global stock of passenger cars in 2009, during 1995 to 2009. I develop a comprehensive new method to more clearly illuminate the structural change in automobiles’ global final demand. Based on the results, I discuss how a circular strategy with a focus on vehicle lifetime extension contributes to the automobile carbon footprint in each country. While the environmental burden from automobile manufacturing has decreased globally, the Leontief production structure countered carbon reduction and completely canceled out the effects of technological changes to reduce emission intensities. The results showed that suppressing demand for new cars through lifetime extensions greatly reduced the carbon footprint, in a similar or even greater way than that from changes in industrial technology.

KEYWORDS:

• Life-cycle CO₂ emissions
• passenger cars
• input–output analysis
• lifetime extension
• structural decomposition analysis

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Shigemi Kagawa, Manfred Lenzen, and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments about this work. All errors remain mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) KAKENHI Grant Number JP18J13430.