Journal of Resources and Ecology ›› 2013, Vol. 4 ›› Issue (2): 132-140.DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2013.02.005

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Carbon Emissions from Industrial Sectors in China: Driving Factors and the Potential for Emission Reduction

GUO Juan1,2, LIU Changxin1,3, SUN Ping4   

  1. 1 School of Mathematics and Quantitative Economy, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian 116025, China;
    2 Center for Econometric Analysis and Forecasting, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian 116025, China;
    3 Shantui Construction Machinery Co. Ltd, Jining 272073, China
    4 School of Management and Engineering, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian 116025, China
  • Received:2012-11-30 Revised:2013-05-31 Online:2013-06-30 Published:2013-06-20
  • Supported by:

    National Natural Science Fund Program (71171035), National Social Science Fund Program (10zd&010), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Program (70901016).

Abstract: We use the refined Laspeyres index decomposition method to determine the main CO2 emissions from industry and analyze differences in these over the period 1994-2007. Then we examined the decoupling state between carbon emissions and economic growth and the effectiveness of the implementation of emission reduction policy. We found that output effect is the dominant positive factor for carbon emissions growth in China’s industrial sectors, and the effect of energy intensity change is the mainfactor affecting carbon emission reductions; the impact of these two factors is respectively 357.20% and -248.67%. The food industry, textile industry and machinery industry show a decreasing trend in emissions, and emissions from the oil industry increased by 217.75%. From 1994 to 2007 and 2000 to 2007, the decoupling index of carbon emissions and the industrial sector was 0.63 and 0.56 respectively. This indicates carbon emissions and economic growth are in a weak decoupling state, and emission reduction policies lack efficacy. These findings can be used in the design of policy priorities for improving decoupling across industrial sectors.

Key words: CO2 emission, factors decomposition, decoupling, emission reduction potential