Although European countries have made great efforts to reduce their territorial carbon emissions, global emissions are still growing. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating within Europe, as transnational institutions, can make significant contributions in translating European efforts into global emissions reduction. Here, we estimate the carbon footprint of the foreign multinationals’ affiliates (FMNEs) operating within the European Union (EU) in 2015 as a first assessment of the MNEs’ potential regarding European and global carbon emissions reduction targets. Our findings show that FMNEs generate 17% of the total carbon footprint of the EU but only 12% of the total value added. Thus, the net impacts of FMNE are considered to be in environmental deficit because their adverse environmental impacts are relatively higher than their positive economic ones. Calculations are made under the assumption that FMNEs produce using the same technology as their domestic peers; therefore, the carbon/economic imbalance found is attributed to the FMNEs’ distribution across sectors. The participation of FMNEs in carbon‐intensive industrial sectors are remarkably high in low‐income EU members; therefore, the effective reduction of the carbon footprint in those countries is largely conditioned by the decisions of foreign MNEs’ headquarters. Furthermore, those countries are more vulnerable to capital leakages in the case where a European carbon tax was to be imposed. We conclude by discussing the economic and policy implications of the country‐level inequality of MNEs’ environmental impacts within the EU.

中文翻译：

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欧盟内外国跨国公司的碳足迹

尽管欧洲国家为减少其领土碳排放量做出了巨大努力，但全球排放量仍在增长。在欧洲运作的跨国企业（MNE），作为跨国机构，可以为将欧洲的努力转化为全球减排做出重大贡献。在这里，我们估算了2015年在欧盟（EU）内运营的外国跨国公司分支机构（FMNEs）的碳足迹，作为对跨国公司在欧洲和全球碳减排目标方面的潜力的首次评估。我们的研究结果表明，FMNEs占欧盟总碳足迹的17％，但仅占总增加值的12％。从而，FMNE的净影响被认为是环境赤字，因为其不利的环境影响相对高于其积极的经济影响。计算是在FMNEs使用与国内同类产品相同的技术的前提下进行的；因此，发现的碳/经济失衡归因于FMNEs在各个部门之间的分布。FMNEs在低收入的欧盟成员国中的碳密集型工业部门的参与率很高。因此，有效减少这些国家的碳足迹在很大程度上取决于外国跨国公司总部的决定。此外，在要征收欧洲碳税的情况下，这些国家更容易遭受资本外流。