Decomposition and Decoupling Analysis of Energy-Related Carbon Emissions from China Manufacturing

Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Oct 2015

The energy-related carbon emissions of China’s manufacturing increased rapidly, from 36988.97 × 104 tC in 1996 to 74923.45 × 104 tC in 2012. To explore the factors to the change of the energy-related carbon emissions from manufacturing sector and the decoupling relationship between energy-related carbon emissions and economic growth, the empirical research was carried out based on the LMDI method and Tapio decoupling model. We found that the production scale contributed the most to the increase of the total carbon emissions, while the energy intensity was the most inhibiting factor. And the effects of the intrastructure and fuel mix on the change of carbon emissions were relatively weak. At a disaggregative level within manufacturing sector, EI subsector had a greater impact on the change of the total carbon emissions, with much more potentiality of energy conservation and emission reduction. Weak decoupling of manufacturing sector carbon emissions from GDP could be observed in the manufacturing sector and EI subsector, while strong decoupling state appeared in NEI subsector. Several advices were put forward, such as adjusting the fuel structure and optimizing the intrastructure and continuing to improve the energy intensity to realize the manufacturing sustainable development in low carbon pattern.

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Decomposition and Decoupling Analysis of Energy-Related Carbon Emissions from China Manufacturing

Decomposition and Decoupling Analysis of Energy-Related Carbon Emissions from China Manufacturing Qingchun Liu, Shufang Liu, and Lingqun Kong School of Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China Received 25 July 2015; Accepted 3 September 2015 Academic Editor: Xinguang Zhang Copyright © 2015 Qingchun Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract The energy-related carbon emissions of China’s manufacturing increased rapidly, from 36988.97 × 104 tC in 1996 to 74923.45 × 104 tC in 2012. To explore the factors to the change of the energy-related carbon emissions from manufacturing sector and the decoupling relationship between energy-related carbon emissions and economic growth, the empirical research was carried out based on the LMDI method and Tapio decoupling model. We found that the production scale contributed the most to the increase of the total carbon emissions, while the energy intensity was the most inhibiting factor. And the effects of the intrastructure and fuel mix on the change of carbon emissions were relatively weak. At a disaggregative level within manufacturing sector, EI subsector had a greater impact on the change of the total carbon emissions, with much more potentiality of energy conservation and emission reduction. Weak decoupling of manufacturing sector carbon emissions from GDP could be observed in the manufacturing sector and EI subsector, while strong decoupling state appeared in NEI subsector. Several advices were put forward, such as adjusting the fuel structure and optimizing the intrastructure and continuing to improve the energy intensity to realize the manufacturing sustainable development in low carbon pattern. 1. Introduction Carbon emissions amount from China has already surpassed the United States since 2007 and has been the number one in the world [1]. Increasing trend of carbon emissions from China has received the great attention with the global warming. Both energy saving and emission reduction are becoming more and more important for Chinese government, who was committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 40–45% in 2020 to be less than 2005 levels on the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009. Manufacturing sector’s, as the core of China economy, product value surpassed the United States for the first time in 2011 and became the number one in the world. But the development of China manufacturing sector has been depending on the high energy consumption for a long time, and it was responsible for approximately 82.54% of China’s final energy demand in 1995–2006 [2]. Therefore, how to realize the manufacturing sustainable development in low carbon pattern is the biggest challenge for China in future. However, China’s manufacturing sector has great energy saving potentiality and space due to excessive dependence on resources and energy consumption [3]. Thus, it is necessary to study the changes of energy-related carbon emissions over time and to explore the main driving factors to increase carbon emissions from China manufacturing sector, as well as the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth in order to help meet the government target. 2. Literature Review2.1. Decomposition Carbon Emissions Decomposition analysis can divide the changes in carbon emissions over time into a number of different factors, which help us better understand the reasons for the changes observed. The broad technique of decomposition analysis undertaken here is often known as IDA, due to the advantage of its simplicity, the availability of statistical data, and the ease of historical comparison. There are a number of different methods available within IDA, and the Log Mean Divisia Index method I (LMDI I) is perfect in decomposition, having no residual term, which is used here in decomposition carbon emissions due to the adaptability and ease of use [4, 5]. Using LMDI I method, many studies were carried out on carbon emissions from China in the last decade. Dong and Zhang [6] applied LMDI to decompose the energy-related carbon emissions from China industry into the production scale, carbon emissions intensity, energy structure, and energy intensity, and the findings showed that industrial production scale plays direct role in increasing carbon emissions. Wei and Xia [7] studied per-capita carbon emissions from the world and found that reducing the energy intensity and developing renewable clear energy were the only two major ways to realize low carbon economy under the background of increasing income and high energy dependence on coal. Song [8] also studied energy-related carbon emissions of Shandong Province in China and decomposed the carbon emissions into population, average wealth, intrastructure, and energy intensity, and point (...truncated)


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Qingchun Liu, Shufang Liu, Lingqun Kong. Decomposition and Decoupling Analysis of Energy-Related Carbon Emissions from China Manufacturing, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2015, 2015, DOI: 10.1155/2015/268286