Decomposition analysis of tourism CO₂ emissions for sustainable development: A case study of China

Abstract

The tourism industry is a nonnegligible contributor to global CO2 emissions, and formulating policy around emission reduction for sustainable tourism requires understanding the drivers contributing to the growth of tourism CO2 emissions. This paper develops an alternative decomposition technique that uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) and distance functions to examine the sources of change in tourism CO2 emissions; this method offers advantages in measuring the contribution of factor inputs to CO2 emissions change and has flexible data requirements. An empirical application using provincial panel data from China's tourism industry during the 2005–2016 period is performed. The results indicate the following: The scale effect induced by economic growth in tourism was the largest factor driving CO2 emissions growth; technical change played a dominant role in reducing CO2 emissions, and technical efficiency change exerted a negligible positive effect on the CO2 emissions increment; the emissions indices associated with labour, capital, and attractive resources generated significant promoting effects on CO2 emissions growth; and the emissions index associated with energy had a minor inhibitory effect. In addition, the drivers of tourism CO2 emissions clearly varied by region and province, and three driving modes of change in provincial CO2 emissions were summarized. This study extends the application of decomposition techniques in the field of tourism studies, and our results provide valuable insights for policymakers and business entities aiming to adopt measures to curb tourism CO2 emissions and promote sustainable tourism.

Analysis and Prediction of the Coupling Coordination Relationship between Tourism and Air Environment: Yangtze River Economic Zone in China as Example

“…Furthermore, tourism activities contribute to the formation of the attitudes toward air environment [20]; in the tourism industry, the ethics toward the air environment determine the actions of balancing the relationship between tourism and air environment [21]. Besides, by emitting greenhouse gases through various tourism activities such as accommodation, transportation, entertainment, etc., tourism activities change the energy consumptions [22][23][24][25], which inevitably leads to the climate change and increases the burden of the air environment.…”

Overcoming information asymmetry in tourism carbon management: The application of a new reporting architecture to Aotearoa New Zealand

“…The simple deposition model in the tourism literature includes the structure decomposition analysis that uses two variables to capture demand (total visitor expenditure and spending profile) and two variables to understand supply (technology and economic structure) ( Sun, 2016 ). More complex approaches are also available that employ index decomposition analysis to further our understanding with respect to how different energy sources are being used, how labour and capital are adopted to promote innovation, and whether firms can generate higher value added per unit energy use ( Liu, Feng, & Yang, 2011 ; Robaina-Alves et al, 2016 ; Zha, Tan, Yuan, Yang, & Zhu, 2020 ). Ultimately, the choice of decomposition model is driven by ease of use, simplicity, and relevance for policy ( Ang, 2004 ).…”

Identifying the Carbon Emissions Damage to International Tourism: Turn a Blind Eye

“…However, these studies do not evaluate carbon emissions damage on INTL_TOUR in relation population density and economic growth, which is incorporated in this study. Second, earlier studies are limited to include energy associated emissions [7,47,48] in eco-tourism agenda, while in this study, we used carbon emissions damage, methane emissions, and nitrous oxide emissions in carbon-tourism modelling to identify the costs of different emissions on INTL_TOUR. Finally, previous studies rarely calculated the share of carbon emissions damage in decreasing inbound tourism, INTL_TOUR receipts, and expenditures [49,50].…”

“…This study works on these stated SDGs in order to analyze the global vision of tourism sustainability and green development agenda for concrete policy findings. The previous studies largely confounded the role of INTL_TOUR in a country's economic growth and sustainable development efforts [7][8][9], while a little work has been done on identifying the carbon emissions damage on INTL_TOUR, which is one of the real motivation to extend the analysis across the globe.…”