China’s carbon emissions structure and reduction potential on the supply-side and demand-side of energy: Under the background of four influencing factors

Abstract

In recent years, the issues related to carbon emissions and environment have attracted extensive attentions. Considering four scenarios (the energy conversion, energy capital savings and loans, energy exports and cement production carbon emissions), this paper adopts the energy consumption method and input-output method to analyze China’s carbon emissions structure on the supply-side and demand-side of energy, and finally provides policy recommendations for China’s structural emission reduction. The results show that, if the four influencing factors were not considered, the measurement of carbon emissions from the final demand was 44.91% higher than the baseline scenario, 12.36% lower than the baseline scenario from intermediate demand, and 10.23% lower than the baseline scenario from the total. For China’s carbon emissions structure on the supply-side of energy, the carbon emissions from high-carbon energy, represented by raw coal, accounted for 66.805% of the total energy-related carbon emissions, while the carbon emissions from low-carbon energy, represented by natural gas, only accounted for 2.485%. For China’s carbon emissions structure on the demand-side of energy, the carbon emissions from intermediate demand (enterprise production) accounted for more than 95% of total energy-related carbon emissions, while the carbon emissions from final demand (residents and government use) accounted for less than 5%. For each specific industry in intermediate demand for energy, the heavy industry, electric power, fossil energy, and chemical industry have high carbon emissions and low carbon emissions efficiency. However, the agriculture, construction, light industry, and service are the opposite. Finally, we provide policy recommendations for improving the accuracy of carbon emissions measurement and carbon emissions efficiency.