Decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions: How have Chinese provinces performed in green growth over time?

Abstract

Extensive research has shown that it is essential to take environmental responsibilities into careful consideration in economic development. Green growth has thereby become one of the most important topics in environmental economics across the globe no matter people are from academia, public, or private sectors. Even though there are many researchers who have investigated the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution, the vast majority of research has only focused on the absolute amount of economic growth and carbon emissions. In this study, utilizing national statistics about gross domestic product and carbon emissions by region over decades, I not only provide a concrete and comprehensive picture of the green growth of Chinese provinces over time, but also present multiple indicators to capture the growth of carbon emissions and gross domestic product, as well as the growth rate of green growth. The results show that, in spite of a high GDP growth rate, the green growth rate was negative because the carbon emissions growth rate was much higher than the rate of GDP growth. This work has shed some light regarding how Chinese provinces can balance between high economic growth and low carbon emissions in order to have a more sustainable and environment-friendly development path.