Title: CO2 emission and firm heterogeneity: a study of metals and metal-based industries in India

Authors: Santosh Kumar Sahu; K. Narayanan

Addresses: Madras School of Economics, Behind Government Data Centre, Gandhi Mandapam Road, Kottur, Chennai, 600025, India ' Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400076, India

Abstract: Industrial energy efficiency has emerged as one of the key issues in India. The increasing demand for energy that leads to growing challenge of climate change has resulted major issues. It is obvious that high-energy intensity leads to high carbon intensity of the economy. This paper is an attempt to estimate the firm level CO2 emissions for the metals and metal-based industries in Indian manufacturing. Calculation of firm level emissions is carried out following IPCC reference approach methodology of carbon dioxide emission from fuel combustion. We tried to find out the inter-firm differences of CO2 emission in the metals and metal-based industries. Data for this study is collated from the CMIE PROWESS online database from 2000-2008, IEA energy statistics and IPCC conversion factors for each of the fuel types. This study found size, age, energy intensity and technology import intensity as the major determinants of CO2 emission intensity of Indian metal and metal-based firms. In addition capital and labour intensity of the firms are also related to the firms' emission intensity.

Keywords: CO2; carbon dioxide; carbon emissions; firm heterogeneity; panel data econometrics; metals industry; metal-based industries; India; energy efficiency; manufacturing industry; fuel combustion; firm size; fim age, energy intensity; technology import intensity; capital; labour intensity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETP.2013.058110

International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, 2013 Vol.9 No.2, pp.110 - 127

Received: 28 Sep 2012
Accepted: 23 May 2013

Published online: 21 Jun 2014 *

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