Abstract
The rapid growth of the economy has brought great benefits to Chinese socio-economic levels during the past several decades. However, it also increases the risk of energy security and environmental problems. This paper explores the inter-relationships among economy, energy consumption and CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emission in China in order to provide sustainable development policy making. Grey relation analysis was used to analyze the productivity, energy consumption in relation to CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emission changes. Results indicate that the total energy consumption has more significant influence than the economic growth on CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emission increase in China, and that a rapid increase in electricity consumption during the past 10 years is another main factor for CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emission increase. The largest CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emitting sectors include industry, transportation, and buildings. Therefore, it is important to decouple the energy consumption, improve energy efficiency to reduce the impacts of CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emission on sustainable development. Governmental policies should be directed towards adjustment of energy structure, low carbon fuels as well as towards enhancement of the demand side management mechanism.
Published Version
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