The uncertainties in the global economic environment, significantly driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resultant sanctions on Russia by the West, along with Sri Lanka’s ongoing struggles to stay afloat amidst a deepening crisis, have all been believed to have created export opportunities for countries such as India. However, this well-celebrated export spike needs to be viewed with a pinch of salt.
Emissions-embodied exports
The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen witnessed a vociferous argument from countries such as India and China that developed countries who are consuming polluted goods produced elsewhere also have an obligation to clean up the mess. The data available from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) indicates that India is one of the leading exporters of carbon emissions-embodied products, and that there is a steady increase in the total carbon emissions embodied in exports. China is the largest exporter of carbon emissions-embodied products, followed by the U.S., Russia and India. India’s total carbon emission exports increased from 80.3 million tonnes at the time of it joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 to 426.1 million tonnes in 2018. The sharp increase in carbon-embodied exports brought India closer to that of the U.S.’s carbon emission exports. In the case of the U.S., carbon emission exports were more or less stagnant between 1995 and 2018.
