Trends and Regional Variations in Carbon Productivity across China

This paper utilizes the Theil and decoupling indices to analyze variation in carbon productivity as well as the factors that influence regional carbon productivity in China and proposes carbon emission reduction countermeasures. The authors conclude that most provinces exhibit year-on-year rising carbon productivity, a trend which decreases moving from east to western China. When applied to carbon productivity, the Theil index presents distinct regional differences. Moreover, the regional variance in carbon productivity is consistently reduced in eastern China and becomes smaller in central China. The difference, however, grows in western China. Carbon productivity grows with the highest speed in central China and the lowest speed in western China. Overall variation in carbon productivity mainly arises from intra-regional difference, whereas inter-regional difference mainly contributed by eastern China. In recent years; both the decoupling index, a dynamic value equal to the rate of change rate in carbon emissions divided by the rate of change in GDP during a given period of time, and carbon productivity vary in different economic development stages. Even if under the same decoupling state, carbon productivity remains different in three regions, i.e., that of the eastern region is higher than the other two regions .

Impact of carbon emissions on economic factors and economic growth in China’s underdeveloped regions: Evidence from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

Global warming and carbon emissions are highly concerned by countries all over the world.Since 2005,China has surpassed the United States as the world’s first carbon emission country,but in recent years,China has made remarkable achievements in carbon emission regulation.In 2018,China’s carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP dropped by 4.0%,a cumulative decline of 45.8%over 2005 and equivalent to a reduction of 5.26 billion tons of CO2.But in underdeveloped areas of the western China,economic growth and energy conservation and emission reduction are still facing a severe contradiction.This paper mainly explores the impact of carbon emissions on economic factors and economic growth in China’s underdeveloped regions(Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region)over the period from 1998 to 2017.The Tapio decoupling elasticity index was used to measure the degree of dependence of Guangxi’s economic growth on carbon emissions,and the influence of economic development factors(the GDP,population,technology level and urbanization level)on CO2 emissions was analyzed with the STIRPAT model.The main findings are presented as follows:(1)The relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth in China’s underdeveloped regions over the period from 1998 to 2017 is mainly characterized by weak decoupling;(2)According to OLS(Ordinary Least Square)modeling results,for every 1%increase in carbon dioxide emissions,economy grows by 0.947%,population size decreases 0.621%,urbanization level increases 0.120%,and technical level declines 0.830%.In view of the research conclusions,some suggestions are put forward to promote the economic transformation and upgrading,improve the environmental protection awareness of the population and actively promote the new urbanization.

Changes in the Energy Consumption Carbon Footprint for Gansu Province

Energy consumption is one of the main human activities driving global climate change, and therefore research on the carbon footprint of energy consumption is of great significance. In this paper, concepts and methods relating to the carbon footprint of energy consumption were used to calculate total carbon footprint, carbon footprint of each type of energy, output value of the carbon footprint and its ecological pressure from 1990 to 2009 in Gansu Province, northwestern China. The ridge regression function within the STIRPAT model was applied to study the quantitative relationship between carbon footprint and economic growth and at the same time verify the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve. A decoupling index was introduced to further explore the dynamic relationship between economic growth and carbon footprint. We found that the total carbon footprint increased from 0.091 ha per capita in 1990 to 0.191 ha per capita in 2009 and fol owed a lfuctuating rising trend. Coal and oil occupy the dominant position within the carbon footprint composition, while natural gas is of little effect. The output value of the carbon footprint increased from 11 800 CNY per ha in 1990 to 25 100 CNY per ha in 2009, representing an average annual growth rate of 4.1%. The ecological pressure intensity of the carbon footprint increased to 0.24 in 2009, and remains much lower than developed provinces Jiangsu and Shanghai, due to the vast area of woodland in Gansu. Development of a low-carbon economy in Gansu remains hindered by limited energy, a fragile ecological environment and irrational energy structure. Population and GDP per capita growth were the main factors driving the increasing carbon footprint; the impact of population is 3.47 times of that of per capita GDP. Regression analysis and decoupling index analysis have proved the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve for economic growth and carbon footprint, but 33 years are required to reach the inlfection point.