Carbon Emissions in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and Driving Factors

Abstract

Xinjiang production and Construction Corps (XPCC) is an important provincial administration in China and vigorously promotes the construction of industrialization. However, there has been little research on its emissions. This study first established the 1998-2018 XPCC subsectoral carbon emission inventory based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) carbon emission inventory method and adopted the logarithmic mean Divisia indexmethod (LMDI) model to analyze the driving factors. The results revealed that from 1998 to 2018, the total carbon emissions in the XPCC increased from 6.11 Mt CO2 in 1998 to 115.71 Mt CO2 in 2018. For the energy structure, raw coal, coke and industrial processes were the main contributors to carbon emissions. For industrial structure, the main emission sectors were the production and supply of electric power, steam and hot water, petroleum processing and coking, raw chemical materials and chemical products, and smelting and pressing of nonferrous metals. In addition, the economic effect was the leading factor promoting the growth of the corps carbon emissions, followed by technical and population effects. The energy structure effect was the only factor yielding a low emission reduction degree. This research provides policy recommendations for the XPCC to formulate effective carbon emission reduction measures, which is conducive to the construction of a low-carbon society. Moreover, it is of guiding significance for the development of carbon emission reduction actions for the enterprises under the corps and provides a reference value for other provincial regions.