Large amounts of carbon emissions and pollution are generated during the manufacturing process for consumer goods. Low carbon manufacturing has been increasingly enquired or requested by stakeholders. However, international trade blurs the responsibility for carbon emissions reduction and raises the questions of responsibility allocation among producers and consumers. Scholars have been examining the nexus of producer versus consumer responsibility among supply chains. Recently, there have been discussions on the share of producer and consumer responsibility. Both producer and consumer responsibility approaches have intrinsic shortcomings and are ineffective in curbing the rise of carbon emissions in supply chains. Shared responsibility based on the equity principle attempts to address these issues. This chapter relates a case study of carbon impact on China's export and economy with scenarios which show that the benefits of carbon reduction by producers can trickle down along the supply chain and motivate the sharing responsibility under certain circumstances. The share of producer and consumer responsibility for low carbon manufacturing can be enabled when embodied carbon emissions in goods and services are priced and such accurate information is available. A mechanism engaging the global participation is recommended. The author calls for further research on the system pricing embodied carbon emission, the universal standard to calculate the embodied carbon emissions and to disclose the information, and the way to secure global cooperation and participation.
Embodied carbon emissions of office building: A case study of China's 78 office buildings
