Volume 4: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part III

Variations of Provincial CO2 Emissions under Multiple Perspectives in China Yuantao Yang , Bin Zhang, Bo Wang, Zhaohua Wang

Abstract

China is a vast country with great regional variations in economy level, resource endowments, industrial structure, demographics, and CO2 emissions level. Previous studies on regional CO2 emissions were usually confined to production- or consumption-based perspectives and neglected the emissions under income-based perspective as they also can be enabled by the use of primary inputs. To fill this gap, we investigate the variations of provincial CO2 emissions under these three perspectives in China during 2007–2012 and intend to identify out which type of final demand and primary input contributes most to the variations of provincial CO2 emissions. Results show that variations of domestic outflow and gross fixed capital formation contributed most to the emissions growth for most provinces under consumption-based perspective, while variations of domestic inflow and compensation of employees did so under income-based perspective. This work can help guide the development of just and effective mitigation policies for various provinces in China.

Keywords Production-based perspective, Consumptionbased perspective, Income-based perspective, Input– output analysis, CO2 emissions, Chinese provinces