Abstract
China is the largest producer of carbon in the world. China’s construction industry has received widespread attention in recent years due to its environmental issues. However, little research has been conducted to investigate the environmental efficiency of the domestic part of this industry. As the foreign contribution is beyond China’s control, identification of domestic carbon emissions is necessary to formulate effective policy interventions. Based on a multi-regional input‐output model, this study attempts to reduce the statistical bias associated with international trade, thereby obtaining a more accurate indicator of domestic carbon emission intensity. This study aims to reveal the change in the domestic carbon emission intensity of China’s construction industry during 2000–2014 and analyze the reason behind it. The results show that, first, both the constructed intensity indicator and commonly used measures of carbon emission intensity have exhibited a decreasing trend over the study period. However, the former has been consistently larger than the latter. Moreover, this difference first increased and then suddenly decreased after a particular year. Second, although the domestic carbon emission intensity shows a gradually declining trend, it has moved from second to first in global rankings, implying that China’s domestic construction industry’s carbon emission efficiency, while falling, lags behind other major economies. Third, the structural decomposition results reveal that changes in direct production emission intensity are the leading causes of the decline in domestic carbon emission intensity. In contrast, a change in the intermediate input structure led to an increase in the emission intensity in China’s construction industry. In addition, the enormous gaps of domestic carbon emission intensity in the construction industry between China and the selected countries are mainly attributable to the difference in the intermediate input structure. The study suggests that China’s construction industry needs to promote high value-added output, optimize intermediate input structure, and improve energy and emission efficiency.
Highlights
The global climate crisis necessitates more effective reductions in carbon emissions
This study extends previous studies in this field from the following three aspects: 1) by separating domestic and foreign contents, this study proposes an analytical framework for measuring domestic carbon emission intensity that is applicable to various sectors; 2) this study uses the most recent data from the World InputOutput Database (WIOD) to measure the DCEI of China’s construction industry during 2000–2014; 3) it analyzes the drivers of DECI variation and the gap between China and other global Frontier economies, expanding this type of research to 2014
This section first provides an overview of DVA and DCE of China’s construction industry over the study period, followed by a comparison between DCEI and total carbon emission intensity
Summary
The global climate crisis necessitates more effective reductions in carbon emissions. The Chinese government has specified the goal of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030and committed to reducing the emission intensity to a value that is 60–65% lower than the 2005 levels by the year 2030 (Chen et al, 2019a). China has recently made an announcement in the UN General Assembly describing its vision to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 (The Chinese Government, 2020). The attainment of such ambitious climate goals would require the development and implementation of vigorous policies, as well as the strengthening of existing measures. To better balance the emission reduction tasks and output demands, targeted measures should be formulated to lower the carbon emission intensity of China’s construction industry
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
