CO2 Emissions in China: Does the Energy Rebound Matter?

Abstract

Enhancing energy efficiency is globally regarded as an effective way to reduce carbon emissions. In recent years, the energy efficiency of China has gradually improved; however, energy consumption and CO2 emissions are still increasing. To better understand the reasons for this, we evaluated the energy rebound effect (RE) of 30 provinces in China over the period 2001–2017 by employing stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and the system generalized method of moments (system-GMM) approach, and explored the extent to which the RE affects CO2 emissions. Asymmetric and regional heterogeneity analyses were also conducted. The results indicate that the national average RE was 90.47% in the short run, and 78.17% in the long run, during the sample period. Most of the provinces experienced a partial RE, with a backfire effect occurring in some provinces such as Guangxi and Henan. The RE was associated with significant increases in CO2 emissions; specifically, a 1% increase in the short-run RE led to an increase in CO2 emissions of approximately 0.818%, and a 1% increase in the long-run RE resulted in an increase in CO2 emissions of approximately 0.695%. Moreover, significant regional differences existed in the impact of the RE on CO2 emissions; in regions with high emissions and a high RE, the CO2 reduction effect from the marginal decline in the RE was much more pronounced than that in other regions.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Agricultural and Industrial Sectors—Change Trends, Economic Conditions, and Country Classification: Evidence from the European Union

“…Greenhouse gas emissions and the relationship between the level of emissions and the economic development of countries have been studied by many authors. As most studies indicate, highly developed countries significantly contribute to the emissions of harmful pollutants [19,24,25,55,[73][74][75]. As emphasized by Janiszewska and Ossowska [56] and Matyka [76], countries with a high level of agricultural potential, characterized, inter alia, by high land productivity and a favorable agrarian structure, are distinguished by a stronger pressure on the environment.…”

“…As much as 80% of CO 2 emissions come from burning fossil fuels. In 2017, the estimated annual emission of CO2 from fossil fuels in the world was 36 gigatons of coal (Gt CO 2 ), and the biggest contributors were China, the USA, India, and the EU [19]. According to the ESOTC [2], the annual increase in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) amounts to about 0.6%/year.…”

“…The current climate crisis is the result of the detrimental effects of increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases [6,[14][15][16][17][18], which are generated naturally and anthropogenically in the atmosphere. Of all of the long-lived greenhouse gases that are emitted as a result of human activity, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) have the greatest impact on climate change [2, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. The main sources of anthropogenic gas emissions are the energy sector (inter alia gases that are emitted to the atmosphere due to burning solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels and gas leaks), transport and industry (emissions that result from industrial activities, e.g., production of concrete, lime, and steel, as well as the transport of passengers and cargo), agriculture (emissions connected with food production, e.g., soil fertilization and animal production, as well as emissions and removals of greenhouse gases that result from the changes in use, e.g., turning forests into agricultural lands), and landfills (emissions resulting from processes that occur on landfills of solid and liquid waste).…”

The impact of energy-saving R&D on urban carbon emission performance: evidence from 218 prefecture-level cities in China

“…On the other hand, in the context of a low-carbon economy, the carbon emission performance has become an important indicator for both local governments and enterprises (Ferrat, 2021). Thus, there exists a competition effect among different regions to enhance their carbon emission performance (Abudureheman et al, 2022a). To be specific, improvements in the carbon emission performance of enterprises in neighboring cities may reduce the competitive advantages of enterprises in the local region, thus prompting local enterprises in the region to strengthen their carbon emission performance by taking effective measures, such as increasing energy-saving R&D investments, so as to improve their overall carbon emission performance.…”

Estimating and Decomposing the TFP Growth of Service-Oriented Manufacturing in China: A Translogarithmic Stochastic Frontier Approach

“…Furthermore, the decomposition of TFP growth in these studies accounts for only two aspects: technological progress and efficiency changes. However, in a transition economy such as China's, due to the imperfection of the factor market, the industrial sector has much more room to improve productivity through factor reallocation and scale adjustment than in mature economies [44,45]. Therefore, it is necessary to take factor allocation and scale adjustment effect into account when analyzing the sources of TFP changes.…”