Abstract

The judgement and measurement of the carbon emission accounting responsibility is the premise for the accurate calculation of the carbon emission. However, a widely accepted principle of carbon emission accounting responsibility has not been formed for national and international levels. This paper aims to establish a carbon emission accounting framework on the perspective of multilateral responsibility principle, integrated the responsibilities of producers, consumers, and income earners. Then, it proposes two sets of indicators: absolute amount of carbon emissions and relative index of carbon emission responsibility. Based on AMNE database, the paper calculates China's absolute amount of carbon emissions and relative index of carbon emission responsibility, decomposes China's carbon emissions on the absolute level. The empirical results show that the total producer carbon emissions consistently ranked the first from 2000 to 2019，on the absolute level. Excessive usage rights were existed among producers, consumers and income earners, on the relative level. China's carbon emissions were more reasonable and closer to the consumer-based emissions, at the multilateral responsibility principle. Further decomposing levels of carbon emissions it shows that: producer-related data indicates a relatively high proportion transferred from other countries through imports into China; consumer-related data shows that demand on an international scale is continuously decreasing within China; income-related data demonstrates that China’s ability to utilize international markets/resources continues increasing. Finally, we emphasizes the necessity for further research in areas such as carbon emission accounting methods and responsibility sharing in future.