The Chinese Academy of Sciences has unveiled the world’s first ‘panoramic’ carbon accounting system. This system introduces a new perspective that holds consumer countries more accountable for emissions associated with the goods they consume. In 2022, China’s emissions appeared 17.7 percent lower, while the United States’ emissions were 15.2 percent higher under this model.
Developed by the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, this innovative model adopts a different approach from traditional accounting methods by assigning greater emission responsibility to the consuming countries rather than the producing countries. Traditional models typically allocate responsibility based on total emissions at production sites like power plants or factories, which tends to highlight emissions from major producer nations like China.
However, with this new consumption-focused calculation, China’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 were 17.7 percent lower compared to figures under the United Nations’ widely used accounting method. Similarly, the total emissions of heavy-consuming countries such as the United States were identified as 15.2 percent higher by this approach. Released on April 8, the ‘SCIENCEWAN-Yuheng Carbon Accounting Large Model’ is being seen as a significant shift in climate change analysis.
According to Wei Wei, the chief scientist of the model and vice president of the institute, it is expected to fundamentally change how carbon emissions are understood and managed. The Chinese Academy of Sciences claims that this system will enhance global climate governance accuracy and provide a more realistic and scientific basis for allocating emission responsibilities among different countries.
