Characteristics, decoupling effect, and driving factors of regional tourism's carbon emissions in China.

Guobao Xiong,Baogen Ding,Junhong Deng

doi:10.1007/s11356-022-19054-9

Abstract

By revealing the temporal and spatial differentiation of China's regional tourism carbon emissions and its decoupling relationship with tourism economic growth and identifying the key factors affecting tourism carbon emissions, this paper is expected to provide a reference for the formulation and implementation of China's regional tourism industry emission reduction policies and measures. Using the tourism's carbon emission data of 30 provinces (cities) in China from 2007 to 2019, we have established a logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model to identify the main driving factors of carbon emissions related to tourism and a Tapio decoupling model to analyze the decoupling relationship between tourism's carbon emissions and tourism-driven economic growth. Our analysis suggests that China's regional tourism's carbon emissions are growing significantly with marked differences across its regions. Although there are observed fluctuations in the decoupling relationship between regional tourism's carbon emissions and tourism-driven economic growth in China, the data exhibit a primary characteristic of weak decoupling. Nonetheless, the degree of decoupling is rising to various extents across regions. Three of the five driving factors investigated are also found to affect emissions. Both tourism scale and tourism consumption lead to the growth of tourism's carbon emissions, while energy intensity has a significant effect on reducing emissions. These effects differ across regions.

Highlights

The rise in carbon emissions is a major contributor to global climate change
The carbon emissions caused by tourism transportation, tourism accommodation, and tourism activities account for 87.69%, 5.65%, and 6.66% of the total tourism’s carbon emissions respectively
From 2007 to 2019, the total carbon emissions of China's regional tourism industry have been on the rise, as the tourism industry has promoted the development of related industries, intensifying CO2 emissions

Summary

Introduction

The rise in carbon emissions is a major contributor to global climate change. It is expected that global tourism's carbon emissions will continue to grow at a rate of 2.5% per year until 2035(Castellani et al 2010). As one of the most resilient economic sectors in the world, tourism exacerbates environmental pressure Statistics show that this sector has contributed 8% to the total global greenhouse gas emissions in 2013. The resulting energy consumption and the carbon emissions generated to meet the needs of tourists, cannot be ignored. Due to this presence, China naturally becomes an integral part of achieving global carbon reduction targets. Low-carbon developments within China's tourism industry are instrumental for achieving high-quality economic development, and an inevitable path for China as it seeks to achieve the goals of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality". It will be imperative to have a better understanding of the driving factors of tourism's carbon emissions in China, and how these factors impact tourism-driven economic growth

Methods

Results

Conclusion