Study on the gravity movement and decoupling state of global energy-related CO2 emissions.

Abstract

Nowadays, developing countries make more and more contributions to CO2 emissions in the world. Thus, it is interesting to explore the gravity movement and decoupling state of global CO2 emissions. Firstly, the gravity movement of global CO2 emissions is explored based on the gravity theory. Then, the contribution decomposition method (CDM) is adopted to identify leading forces of gravity movement. Finally, the decoupling state of CO2 emissions in most countries from economic development (GDP) are studied. In 2015, the biggest CO2 emitter was China, which accounted for 27.52% of global CO2 emissions. In 2015, the country with the biggest per capita CO2 emissions was Qatar. Per capita CO2 emissions for some developed countries in 2015 were lower than that in 1965. Over 1965-2015, the gravity center for global CO2 emissions moves towards the southeast, which is divided into two stages. The gravity movement of per capita CO2 emissions is towards southeast and is divided into four stages. Over 1990-2015, economic growth in 17 countries presented decoupling with CO2 emissions. Strong decoupling (SD) rarely occurred in developing countries, especially in the period 2010-2015.