Linear Representation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Along Industrial Value Chains Using Environmentally Extended Input–output Tables

We studied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CO2-eq) along industrial value chains and represented their dependency links linearly as the first step in assessing the GHG reducing potential of the circular economy. The applied method extended the input–output table for the Spanish economy to integrate GHG emissions. We then simplified the matrix to ensure acceptable representation of emissions using methods such as emission filtering and triangulation of matrices. Finally, we performed a backwards classification (Link-x) of the resulting emissions to assess their locations along industrial value chains. This allowed us to graphically represent a linear configuration of 20 industrial manufacturing value chains, the relationships between the intersectoral links, and the resulting emissions, with 94.5% of total emissions included. This provided the basic information for further analysis of the circular economy’s potential for reducing GHG emissions depending on the circularity achieved.