CO2 emissions from the industrialization and urbanization processes in the manufacturing center Tianjin in China

Abstract

Curbing the rapid CO2 emissions and reaching the emission peak before 2030 under socioeconomic transition is a great challenge facing China. Therefore, in–depth understanding of the impact of industrialization and urbanization processes on CO2 emissions is essential for the achievement of China's CO2 emission reduction targets. In this study, we apply an analysis framework based on input–output analysis and structural decomposition analysis to analyze the CO2 emissions cost of the industrialization and urbanization processes from 1997 to 2012, using the manufacturing center Tianjin as an example. The CO2 emissions of Tianjin tripled during the 15-year studied period. The industrialization process strongly increased CO2 emissions through the rapid growth of the final demand level, while energy intensity improvement played an important role in curbing the rapid emission growth from 1997 to 2012. With respect to specific industries, with a growing share in economic structure, construction was the largest source in the overall CO2 emissions structure. As the pillar industry, transport equipment and information technology (IT) machinery industry were the largest sources in net export-related CO2 emissions, and the IT machinery industry also contributed the most to CO2 emissions growth related to production structure changes. Growing importance of tertiary industry, services (including producer services and consumer services) led to CO2 emissions growth through the growing share in net export and final demand structure during the 2007–2012 period. Besides the influence of industrialization, the rapid urbanization process resulted in a 74.1% growth in household consumption-related CO2 emissions, and the gaps between rural and urban continued to increase. The high demand for city infrastructure and building construction originated from investment also caused a great CO2 emission growth (142.5 Mt, 86.6% CO2 emission growth in Tianjin caused by investment). These results also provide policy implications for curbing the CO2 emissions increase in Tianjin as well as in other cities.