The Carbon Footprint of Industry
Every sector of every economy leaves a carbon footprint — not just its own direct emissions, but all the CO₂ embodied in the inputs it sources from global supply chains.
Using the OECD Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) tables, we trace these emissions through the Leontief inverse B = (I − A)⁻¹, where A is the technical coefficients matrix.
Let's explore the data.
Total Emissions Over Time
Germany's motor vehicle sector — total carbon footprint including embodied emissions from the full supply chain.
At 100.7 MtCO₂e in 2020, computed as e = f̂ · B · y, where f is the direct emission intensity vector and y is final demand.
Focus: 2020
Let's zoom into a single year and decompose the 100.7 MtCO₂e total into its constituent parts.
Emissions Decomposition
The total footprint decomposes into components based on where emissions originate in the production network:
Each component is derived from the power-series expansion of the Leontief inverse: B = I + A + A² + A³ + …
The Upstream Supply Chain
Nearly 80% of the total footprint originates upstream — emissions embodied in intermediate inputs sourced from suppliers worldwide.
These 80.6 MtCO₂e correspond to f̂ · (A + A² + A³ + …) · y — each successive power of A traces one more layer back through the supply chain.
Tier 1: Direct Suppliers
The first layer f̂ · A · y reveals the direct suppliers whose production generates the largest emissions for this sector.
Each node is a country–industry pair; link width represents the magnitude of embodied emissions flowing through that input channel.
Deeper in the Supply Chain
Scroll to unfold higher-order terms — A²·y shows suppliers' suppliers, A³·y goes one step further.
Each tier reveals another layer of the global production network, weighted by direct emission intensities f.
↓ Scroll slowly to unfold tiers ↓
Supply Chain Concentration
The upstream network reveals a pattern common to most manufacturing sectors: energy-intensive industries (metals, chemicals, electricity) and resource extraction dominate the deeper tiers.
Emissions concentrate in a few key country–sector nodes, reflecting the structure of global intermediate trade.
Now: The Downstream
We've traced where embodied emissions come from. Now let's follow where they go.
9.4 MtCO₂e flow downstream — embodied in Germany's motor vehicle outputs as they reach intermediate buyers and final consumers.
Immediate Destinations
The first downstream tier shows where this sector's output goes — to domestic wholesalers, direct final demand, and international buyers.
Link widths represent the emissions embodied in the output flowing to each destination.
To Final Consumption
Scroll to trace embodied emissions further downstream — through distribution channels to their final consumption destinations across the world.
↓ Scroll slowly to unfold tiers ↓
The Full Picture
From raw materials through production to final consumption — the complete emissions network for Germany's motor vehicle sector, computed via multi-regional input-output analysis.
Methodology based on OECD ICIO tables and the Leontief demand-pull model. See Yamano & Guilhoto (2020) for details.