CGPA Working Paper: Product Level Emission Intensities: Measurement and Application

We propose a novel method for calculating product-level emission intensities (PLEI) at highly disaggregate level (Harmonized System 6-digit) for nine emission categories. This method effectively disentangles PLEI from the firm-level efficiency factor that varies across firms and years. Utilizing firm-level emissions data from China for the period 2000–2013, our analysis shows that: (i) there is substantial heterogeneity in PLEI across different products; (ii) the 10% most emission-intensive products contribute to nearly 75% of total emissions, while comprising only 4% of total exports; (iii) a less aggregate categorization of products markedly underestimates the variation in emission intensities; and (iv) China’s export profile shows no tendency towards specialization in products with high emission intensity.