Allocating capital-associated CO₂ emissions along the full lifespan of capital investments helps diffuse emission responsibility.

ABSTRACT: Capital assets such as machinery and infrastructure contribute substantially to CO₂ emissions over their lifetime. Unique features of capital assets such as their long durability complicate the assignment of capital-associated CO₂ emissions to final beneficiaries. Whereas conventional approaches allocate emissions required to produce capital assets to the year of formation, we propose an alternative perspective through allocating required emissions from the production of assets over their entire lifespans. We show that allocating CO₂ emissions embodied in capital assets over time relieves emission responsibility for the year of formation, with 25‒46% reductions from conventional emission accounts. This temporal allocation, although virtual, is important for

SUBMITTER: Ye Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10173932 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature