China's Growing CO₂ EmissionsA Race between Increasing Consumption and Efficiency Gains

Abstract

China's rapidly growing economy and energy consumption are creating serious environmental problems on both local and global scales. Understanding the key drivers behind China's growing energy consumption and the associated CO 2 emissions is critical for the development of global climate policies and provides insight into how other emerging economies may develop a low emissions future. Using recently released Chinese economic inputoutput data and structural decomposition analysis we analyze how changes in China's technology, economic structure, urbanization, and lifestyles affect CO 2 emissions. We find that infrastructure construction and urban household consumption, both in turn driven by urbanization and lifestyle changes, have outpaced efficiency improvements in the growth of CO 2 emissions. Net trade had a small effect on total emissions due to equal, but significant, growth in emissions from the production of exports and emissions avoided by imports. Technology and efficiency improvements have only partially offset consumption growth, but there remains considerable untapped potential to reduce emissions by improving both production and consumption systems. As China continues to rapidly develop there is an opportunity to further implement and extend policies, such as the Circular Economy, that will help China avoid the high emissions path taken by today's developed countries.

Carbon footprint from helitankers: sustainable decision making in aerial wildfire fighting

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Urbanization, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions in China: A panel cointegration and causality analysis

“…The rapid growth of China's extensive economy in recent decades has inevitably caused fast growth of CO 2 emissions. Furthermore, the construction of urban infrastructures and household consumption in the process of rapid urbanization has also led to an increase in CO 2 emissions (Peters et al, 2007;Raupach et al, 2007). Although urbanization has played a vital role in stimulating economic growth in China, it has created serious environmental problems, posing tremendous challenges to sustainable development (Liu and Diamond, 2005;Peters et al, 2007;Liu et al, 2008;Liu Yansui et al, 2014).…”

Structural Decomposition Analysis of Carbon Emissions and Policy Recommendations for Energy Sustainability in Xinjiang

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