Experts from research institutions in China, Japan and the United States said in the Annual Report on China’s Low-carbon Economic Development (2011) that China should seek more intensified participation in the global division of labor.
To illustrate the imbalanced trading mode, the report took a made-in-China Barbie doll as an example. It said that from production to the customers’ purchase, three-quarters of the total carbon emission occurred in China, while it only keeps one tenth of the value added.
The report revealed that such a mode would benefit developed countries with technologies, brands, channels and market advantages, but brought relatively little influence to developing countries stuck in low-end manufacturing.
Other difficulties for China’s development of low-carbon economy include the heavy use of coal in energy consumption, low efficiency in energy use, and growing population pressures in urban areas, the report said.
