China is a global carbon crossroads. Wealthy eastern coastal provinces import carbon-intensive goods from the country's less affluent centre and west. But China also exports carbon to consumers abroad, particularly in Europe, Japan and the United States. A key question is whether and how policy can hold consumers responsible for the direct and indirect emissions in the goods they buy. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Feng and colleagues1 illustrate the magnitude of this challenge by linking over half of China's domestic emissions to consumption in the wealthy parts of China and overseas.

© 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited