Unveiling indirect greenhouse gas emissions : an environmentally extended input-output analysis of the carbon footprint in the Visegrad countries

Abstract

In a globalised world economy, direct emissions account for an increasingly smaller proportion of the total greenhouse gas emissions of countries. Thus, greenhouse gas emissions embodied in traded goods must also be calculated to identify the drivers of total greenhouse gas emissions. This study presents an environmentally extended inputoutput (EEIO) analysis of the embodied greenhouse gas emissions in the Visegrad countries (V4) – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – from 2015 to 2023. Grounded in Leontief’s input–output model, the EEIO model enables the emissions to be allocated to final demand categories, such as household consumption, government spending, gross capital formation, and exports. This approach reveals the full carbon footprint of economic activities, including upstream and downstream interdependencies. The cross-country analysis includes the input–output tables of Eurostat and emissions data of 63 economic sectors. Across all V4 countries, embodied greenhouse gas emissions are, on average, more than three times higher than direct emissions. Sectoral analysis reveals that industries such as motor vehicles and electrical equipment exhibit high embodied emissions despite having relatively low direct emissions. Furthermore, the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in the V4 countries are revealed by decomposing the final demand categories. Results indicate that household consumption primarily drives Poland’s emissions, whereas exports account for nearly half of Hungary and Slovakia’s embodied emissions because of their greater integration in global value chains. These differences reflect structural economic variations and differing energy profiles across the V4 countries. The study underscores the importance of EEIO analysis in identifying high-impact sectors and informing targeted mitigation strategies. It argues for the inclusion of embodied emissions into national climate policies to help the European Union (EU) achieve its decarbonisation goals. This research contributes to the discourse on carbon responsibility, trade-related emission transfers, and policy effectiveness in the EU.