Who drives recent CO2 emissions in China, India and Brazil? A decomposition and decoupling analysis.

Abstract

AbstractThe study attempts to examine the driving factors of total energy-related and power-related (electricity-heat) CO2emissions for China, India and Brazil, three BRICS countries (including also Russia and South Africa) with vital economic and demographic dynamics. This paper conducts a decomposition analysis (DA) by applying the Long Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) technique for China, India and Brazil for the period of 2000–2018. The study investigates the impacts of the most prevailing factors in the released literature, as well as certain demographic ones (household size and household number) which introduced in the relevant literature for first time incorporating important social and demographic dynamics. The results show that income and population effects enlarge significantly the energy-related CO2emissions. Household size, household number and income effects are crucial for the increase of power-related CO2emissions. The crucial factors for the decrease of energy-related CO2emissions is energy intensity effect, while for power-related CO2emissions is the emission factor effect. In order to develop an integrated picture of the link between energy and economy we apply also the so-called decoupling analysis.