Decoupling between Economic Development and Carbon Emissions and Its Driving Factors: Evidence from China

Abstract

Analyzing the relationship between economic development and carbon emissions is conducive to better energy saving and emission reduction. This study is based on the panel data of China’s carbon emissions, from 2009 to 2019, and quantitative analysis of the relationship between carbon emissions and economic development through the Tapio decoupling model and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition model. The results show that: First, carbon emission and economic development are increasing year by year, and the development trend of economic growth rate and carbon emission growth rate presents the characteristics of consistency and stage. Second, China’s carbon emissions and economic development are basically in a weak decoupling state, and carbon emissions and economic development are positively correlated. Third, there are significant differences in decoupling indices among the four regions, mainly in that the central region is better than the eastern region, the eastern region is better than the northeast region, the northeast region is better than the western region, and the development of provinces in the region is unbalanced. Fourth, from the perspective of driving factors, the elasticity of population size and economic intensity can restrain the decoupling of carbon emissions, while the elasticity of energy intensity and carbon intensity have a positive effect. Finally, according to the results of empirical analysis, this paper focuses on promoting China’s emission reduction and energy sustainable development from the aspects of developing low-carbon and zero carbon technology, supporting new energy industries and promoting the construction of a carbon emission trading market.