Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Regional Carbon Emissions in the Chinese Transportation Industry

Meng Wang,Yarong Yang,Changzheng Zhu

doi:10.3390/en13051100

Meng Wang, Yarong Yang + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/en13051100

Copy DOI

Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Mar 2, 2020
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications

Abstract

Global warming caused by excessive emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is one of the greatest challenges for mankind in the 21st century. China is the world’s largest carbon emitter and its transportation industry is one of the fastest growing sectors for carbon emissions. However, China is a vast country with different levels of carbon emissions in the transportation industry. Therefore, it is helpful for the Chinese government to formulate a reasonable policy of regional carbon emissions control by studying the factors influencing the carbon emissions of the Chinese transportation industry at the regional level. Based on data from 1997 to 2017, this paper adopts the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) decomposition method to analyze the influencing degree of several major factors on the carbon emissions of transportation industry in different regions, puts forward some suggestions according to local conditions, and provides references for the carbon reduction of Chinese transportation industry. The results show that (1) in 2017, the total carbon emissions of the Chinese transportation industry were 714.58 million tons, being 5.59 times of those in 1997, with an average annual growth rate of 9.89%. Among them, the carbon emissions on the Eastern Coast were rising linearly and higher than those in other regions. The carbon emissions in the Great Northwest were always lower than those in other regions, with only 38.75 million tons in 2017. (2) Economic output effect is the most important factor to promote the carbon emissions of transportation industry in various regions. Among them, the contribution values of economic output effect to carbon emissions on the Eastern Coast, the Southern Coast and the Great Northwest continued to rise, while the contribution values of economic output effect to carbon emissions in the other five regions decreased in the fourth stage. (3) The population size effect promoted the carbon emissions of the transportation industry in various regions, but the population size effect of the Northeast had a significant inhibitory influence on the carbon emissions in the fourth stage. (4) The regional energy intensity effect in most stages inhibited carbon emissions of the transportation industry. Among them, the energy intensity effects of the North Coast and the Southern Coast in the two stages had obvious inhibitory influences on carbon emissions of the transportation industry, but the contribution values of the energy intensity effect in the Great Northwest and the Northeast were positive in the fourth stage. (5) Except for the Great Southwest, the industry-scale effects of other regions had inhibited the carbon emissions of transportation industry in all regions. (6) The influences of the carbon emissions coefficient effect on carbon emissions in different regions were not significant and their inhibitory effects were relatively small.

Highlights

Global climate change is a major challenge in the field of sustainable development for the world.Global CO2 emissions, influenced by rising energy demand, rose 1.7% in 2018 to a record 33.1 billion tons, according to the research report of “carbon emissions from fuel combustion” released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) [1]
The contribution values of economic output effect to carbon emissions on the Eastern Coast, the Southern Coast and the Great Northwest continued to rise, while the contribution values of economic output effect to carbon emissions in the other five regions decreased in the fourth stage
By using the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) decomposition method, this paper decomposes the factors, which influence on the carbon emissions of Chinese transportation industry, into economic output, industry scale, energy intensity, population size, and carbon emissions coefficients

Summary

Introduction

Global climate change is a major challenge in the field of sustainable development for the world.Global CO2 emissions, influenced by rising energy demand, rose 1.7% in 2018 to a record 33.1 billion tons, according to the research report of “carbon emissions from fuel combustion” released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) [1]. In 2017, the carbon emissions of the transportation sector accounted for nearly a quarter of the global total, reaching 8.04 billion tons. According to IEA data, in 2007, Chinese CO2 emissions surpassed those of the United States and China became the world’s largest CO2 emitter [2]. The rapid growth of Chinese carbon emissions has attracted global attention. Based on IEA data, this paper calculates that Chinese carbon emissions reached 9.302 billion tons in 2017, accounting for 28.33% of the total in the world. The transportation industry accounts for 9.5% of Chinese total carbon emissions, becoming one of the industries with the fastest growth of carbon emissions in China [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion