Carbon dioxide emission linkage analysis of Australian construction sector—based on a hybrid multi-regional input-output model

The construction sector contributes about 40% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and it is more active under great potential to reduce carbon emissions and speed down global warming. Even though Australia only takes 0.33% of the population in the world, its per capita carbon emission level is the biggest of the world, the Australian construction sector also accounts for a great part in economic development and carbon emissions. As there are extensive and complicated connections in industrial sectors, it is necessary to investigate the carbon emission linkages among the Australian construction sector and other sectors. Based on the data from the world input-output database (WIOD) during 1995 to 2009, this research aimed to quantify the CO2 emission linkages associated with the Australian construction sector by combing the hybrid multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model and hypothesis extraction method. As the net backward CO2 emission was much higher than the net forward CO2 emission, indicating the Australian construction sector was a final demand sector. From the inter-regional level, the construction sector in Australia had continual international trade with China, ROW, and Japan. For the inter-sectoral perspective, the construction sector imported most CO2 emissions from S17 (electricity, gas, and water supply), S11 (other non-metallic mineral), and S12 (basic metals and fabricated metal) and exported the biggest flows to S31 (public admin and defence; compulsory social security), and S29 (real estate activities). By using the results, the study tries to give some countermeasures for the construction sector in Australian, which is used to promote energy productivity, develop industrial structure promotion, and update the policy direction for CO2 emission reduction.