Forward and backward critical sectors for CO2 emissions in China based on eigenvector approaches

China had taken measures to reduce the emissions of CO2 these years as a staunch supporter of the Paris Agreement. However, it is not such an easy task for the authority to decide which sectors should take responsibility on the process of CO2 emissions reduction in the context of highly connected supply chains. Based on the sectoral CO2 emissions and input-output table of China, this study provided both forward and backward perspectives based on eigenvector approaches to identify the critical sectors that are critical for the CO2 emissions in value chains, including a backward method called power-of-pull method that identifies the pulling effect of demand side and a forward method called power-of-push method that identifies the pushing power of supply side. The results showed that the electricity and hot water production and supply was the most influential pulling sector in the studying period, followed by the metal mining in the backward direction. In the forward direction, the electricity and hot water production and supply was also the top 1 important sector while coal mining ranked the second. The results suggest that electricity and hot water production and supply played a vital role in the CO2 emission in the system. During the studied period from 2007 to 2015, the power of nonmetal mining to pull CO2 emissions showed a notable increase. Our proposed approach could be helpful for policy-making because of its user-friendliness comparing with other method as well as providing a new perspective.