Estimating Greenhouse Gas Footprints of Sectors for the Brazilian Economy 1995-2009

Abstract: The estimation of a country’s greenhouse gas emissions has appropriately calculated the total footprint of a nation. However, when such estimates are brought down to the level of each economic activity, they do not reflect the total consumption pattern of a sector by not taking intersectoral relationships into account. Therefore, this study has two major purposes: (1) to estimate the greenhouse gas footprint of sectors in Brazil for the period 1995-2009; and (2) to propose a quantification of the emissions embodied in the national intersectoral relations during the same period. The empirical part of this study employed a Single-Region Input-Output (IO) table for Brazil obtained from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD). The results provide a novel contribution by accounting, for the first time, the footprint of Brazilian sectors and by proposing the classification of economic activities as net producers or net consumers of emissions, which arises from the quantification of intersectoral relations. The results unveil a different pattern of sectoral responsibility for pollution in Brazil.