Trade-related emissions reach 20% of global total

Greenhouse gas emissions embedded in international trade now account for more than 20% of the global total. According to data from the European Climate Foundation and climate consultancy Matière, trade-related emissions have grown 10 percentage points faster than global emissions since 1995.

The scale of these trade-linked emissions is now comparable to the combined emissions of the European Union, the United States, and Brazil. A newly developed tracker covering 45 economies, including all G20 nations, indicates that the environmental cost of consumption is increasingly being transferred across borders.

In the European Union, imported emissions accounted for more than one-third of the bloc’s carbon footprint in 2023, an increase of seven percentage points since 2015. Certain nations, including Sweden, Austria, and Spain, show even higher exposure, with imported emissions exceeding 40% of their total carbon footprints.