Regional environmental responsibility and CO2 emissions associated with interregional trade in Chile

CO2 emissions are closely intertwined with economic activity, therefore, the quantification and monitoring of carbon flows between regions is essential for environmental management under equitable criteria of territorial environmental justice. The objective of this work is to evaluate for the regions of Chile the degree of environmental responsibility derived from the emissions originated by burning liquid fossil fuel, based on an environmentally extended multi-regional input-output model. This makes it possible to evaluate the degree of regional responsibility from three perspectives of environmental justice, that is, the responsibility of the producer, the consumer and the added value. The results show a center-periphery pattern of emissions, in which the Santiago center concentrates tertiary activities related to commerce and services, which are clean from the perspective of consumption and production, but which from the perspective of added value generate the largest volumes of emissions. While peripheral regions specialized in emission-intensive extractive and industrial activities, benefit in terms of consumption the center of the country and the rest of the world through exports. The results will favor the discussion on the equity of regional environmental justice and on the efficiency of the national emissions mitigation policy.