Analysis of the Gravity Movement and Decoupling State of China’s CO2 Emission Embodied in Fixed Capital Formation

Xi Zhang,Xiaoqian Song,Fei Wu,Yue Xu,Yen Wah Tong,Yong Geng,Ziyan Gao,Harn Wei Kua

doi:10.3390/en13246655

Abstract

Investment is an essential engine of economic growth and a major source of China’s CO2 emission. It is therefore crucial to explore the gravity movement and decoupling state of China’s CO2 emission embodied in fixed capital formation (FCF). This study aims to estimate China’s CO2 emissions embodied in various categories of FCF by using input–output tables. The gravity model and Shapley decomposition method are used to explore the gravity movement and regional contributions for China’s CO2 emissions embodied in FCF. Then, the Tapio decoupling model and logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method are combined to uncover the decoupling relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth embodied in FCF and the corresponding driving factors. The results show that China’s CO2 emissions embodied in FCF experienced a rapid increase during 2002–2012 and remained almost stable during 2012–2017. The gravity center for CO2 emissions embodied in FCF moved toward northwest during 2002–2015, with the northwestern region and middle Yellow River region being the main engine regions. The relations between CO2 emissions and added values embodied in various categories of FCF were weak decoupling during 2002–2017. Investment scale was the major factor inhibiting the decoupling, while embodied energy intensity was the major factor promoting the decoupling. Finally, several policy recommendations are proposed based on these findings.

Highlights

Climate change has become a global challenge during the last couple of decades
In order to achieve the national and regional CO2 emission reduction targets, it is critical to explore the dynamic variation trace of the gravity center of CO2 emissions embodied in fixed capital formation (FCF), as well as the decoupling state between CO2 emissions embodied in FCF and economic growth embodied in FCF
The Tapio decoupling method and the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method are combined to examine the decoupling state between CO2 emissions embodied in FCF and economic growth embodied in FCF

Summary

Introduction

In order to address this issue, energy saving and emission reduction have been promoted globally [1]. Energies 2020, 13, 6655; doi:10.3390/en13246655 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies (CO2 ) is one of the main greenhouse gases and occupies the largest part of the total greenhouse gas emission [2]. China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest CO2 emitter since 2006 [3]. According to the International Energy Agency [4], China’s CO2 emissions increased from 3552 million tons (Mt) in 2002 to 9257 Mt in 2017, with an average annual growth rate of 6.6% [4]. China has initiated several mitigation policies and set up its own emission-reduction targets. It is critical to investigate the relationship between engines of economic growth and corresponding CO2 emissions so that feasible and effective emission-reduction measures can be proposed

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion