The impact of regional industrial structure differences on carbon emission differences in China: An evolutionary perspective

Abstract

All industries produce different carbon emissions during their production process. Previous studies use multivariate regression or panel models to explore the impact of the industrial structure on regional carbon emissions differences based on time series data or panel data from the perspective of one-dimensional continuous variables. However, there are also regional differences in the factors affecting regional carbon emission differences, such as the economic development level, the industrial structure, and urbanization. The regional carbon emission difference matrix and the influencing factor difference matrix are relational variables, and it is difficult for traditional multiple regression analysis to study the relationship between relational variables. Thus, this paper proposes the perspective of two-dimensional difference relations for studying the influencing factors of regional carbon emission differences based on Quadratic Assignment Procedure model. Energy consumption and the value added by industrial processes in various industries from 30 regions in China are taken as the sample. The results of this study are as follows: carbon emissions are increasing and the differences in carbon emissions between regions are also increasing. There are obvious regional differences in the industrial structure, economic growth, population and urbanization in China. The influence and magnitude of the impact of regional industrial structure differences on regional carbon emission differences vary from year to year. Interregional differences in industry, construction and transportation and warehousing industries had a significantly positive impact on interregional differences in carbon emissions from 2007 to 2016. By analyzing the impact of the influence mechanism of regional industrial structure differences on carbon emissions, the findings of this study can identify some suggestions for regionally balanced emission reduction policies.