Carbon footprint and embodied carbon transfer at the provincial level of the Yellow River Basin

The ecological conservation and high-quality development of China's Yellow River Basin is a national strategy proposed in 2019. Under China's goal of achieving a carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, clarifying the carbon footprint of each province and the transfer paths of embodied carbon emissions is crucial to the carbon reduction strategy for this region. This paper uses input-output model and multi-regional input-output model to account for the carbon footprint of nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin, and to estimate the amount of embodied carbon transfer between provinces and industrial sectors. Social network analysis is applied to identify the critical industries in the inter-provincial embodied carbon emission transfers from the three major industries. We found that the per capita carbon footprint of the Yellow River Basin decreased by 23.4% in 2017 compared to 2012. Among the sectoral composition of the carbon footprint of each province, “Processing and manufacturing of petroleum, coking, nuclear fuel, and chemical products”, “Construction”, “Other services”, and “Metal processing and metal, non-metallic products” are the four sectors with a higher proportion of emissions. The embodied carbon emission transfer between the provinces in middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin is much higher than that between the upstream provinces. Among carbon emission transfer network of three major industries in nine provinces，the secondary industry in Shaanxi has the highest centrality and is the most critical industry. This study provides a theoretical basis and data support for formulating carbon emission reduction plans in the Yellow River Basin.