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Regional Disparity in Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Author(s) -
Tian Xin,
Chang Miao,
Tanikawa Hiroki,
Shi Feng,
Imura Hidefumi
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00514.x
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , natural resource economics , secondary sector of the economy , mainland china , economic sector , input–output model , electricity , position (finance) , china , business , environmental science , economy , economics , geography , market economy , engineering , ecology , biology , electrical engineering , archaeology , finance
Summary Due to its position as the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, China is facing the great challenge of controlling its rising carbon emissions. As a large country with great disparities in economic development and industrial structure among its regions, it is essential to understand the carbon emission characteristics of regions and industrial sectors in order to formulate effective and targeted policies to achieve domestic carbon emission reduction targets. For this reason, we have conducted a comprehensive analysis in this article of the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions structure and major responsible sectors for 19 provincial regions of mainland China. Great disparities in direct CO 2 emissions and intensities are identified across regions. We show that the direct CO 2 intensities in regions are affected by not only the economic development level, but also by the structure of the carbon‐intensive sectors and sectoral CO 2 emissions intensities. A region‐by‐region fine‐scale breakdown analysis demonstrates that both the direct CO 2 emissions and total CO 2 emissions are highly concentrated in a minority of sectors: the construction sector is the major contributor to the total CO 2 emissions in all regions, followed by the services sectors as a whole. Moreover, the petroleum and chemicals sector, nonmetallic mineral products sector, metal products sector and electricity and steam production sector should also receive more attention, as they are identified as “highly carbon intensive” in most of the regions studied, especially through the close linkage with the construction sector. Based on these results, we discuss and propose policy implications for controlling the rising CO 2 emissions in regions of mainland China.