This study investigated the driving factors of embodied carbon emission changes in manufacturing trades through structural decomposition analysis. For empirical analysis, we developed an environmental multiregional input–output model for Korea, Japan, and China for 1995–2009. The three countries, which are economically and environmentally significant in Asia, are not only tightly linked economically through global value chains, but also close geographically, sharing various environmental issues. The results show that China is a net exporter of embodied carbon emissions to Japan and Korea, despite a substantial trade deficit. Its exports are more carbon-intensive than its imports from Japan and Korea. China’s embodied emissions were mainly affected by a change in carbon-intensive production and trade structure, and Japan’s and Korea’s were affected by China’s final demand. At the sectoral level, “Electrical and Optical Equipment”, “Basic Metals and Fabricated Metal”, and “Textiles and Textile Products” mainly affected the embodied carbon emission changes in these three countries. As a result, a considerable share of carbon-intensive production has shifted to China and increased consumption of China’s final products and services in the manufacturing industries, resulting in a significant increase in embodied carbon emissions. Additionally, our findings at the sectoral level could provide important evidence regarding the effective environmental policies that enable sustainable industries. With the increasing interest in the embodied carbon emissions, future research would pay more attention to the bilateral trades of major carbon-emitting countries and multilateral trades.

As a consequence of globalization, increased international transport generates many pollutants. Pollution generation from other industries related to international transport also cannot be ignored. This paper thus aims to investigate the carbon emissions from international transport. We analyzed embodied carbon emissions of international transport using multi-region input output analysis, and identified the factors underlying changes in emissions using structural decomposition analysis. China was the world’s largest CO₂-emitting country in international transport in terms of both production- and consumption-based standards. However, consumption-based emissions in that country were much lower than production-based emissions, while in the United States, with second largest emissions, the situation was the opposite. Major emission changes were contingent on demands for international transportation and emission efficiency. In the case of the European Union (EU), consumption-based emissions were higher, but CO₂ emissions decreased gradually due to increased emission efficiency. The different information is provided by each standard, and reduction targets can change according to the standards employed. While discussions on emissions standards are still in progress, the results of this study suggest that CO₂ emissions from international transport, and according to different emissions standards, should receive careful attention in energy policy design, in order to limit CO₂ emissions globally.