Energy‐related‐CO2 emissions in China's electricity and heating industry: A dual perspective of the economic “new normal”

Abstract

AbstractAfter China's economy entered a “new normal,” their economic development model shifted from an energy‐intensive to an energy‐saving, given that China's electricity and heating industry accounts for about half of the country's energy consumption and carbon emissions. Based on the sample data from 2005 to 2020, this paper adopts the energy consumption method and the extended index decomposition model to explore carbon emissions of the electricity and heating industry in the early and late period of the economic new normal. The results show that: (1) carbon emissions from the electricity and heating industry showed a growing direction in the economic new normal period. However, compared with the early period of economic new normal, the increasing speed of carbon emissions from the electricity and heating industry slowed down significantly in the late period. This point also directly reflects that the extensive development mode of energy utilization has been alleviated after the electricity and heating industry entered the economic new normal. (2) Compared with the early period, the energy structure effect on the emission reduction was enhanced after entering the economic new normal. Meanwhile, the investment efficiency effect has changed from promoting to inhibiting. (3) Compared with the early period, the promotion impact of the investment scale effect on carbon emissions in the electricity and heating industry has no significant change after entering the economic new normal. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the emission reduction impact of the energy intensity effect is weak. This paper not only provides empirical evidence for evaluating the emission reduction effects of the Chinese electricity and heating industry before and after the economic new normal but also shares policy insights for precise emission reduction in the electricity and heating industry in the later stage of the economic new normal.