A Research on Driving Factors of Carbon Emissions of Road Transportation Industry in Six Asia-Pacific Countries Based on the LMDI Decomposition Method

Abstract

The transportation industry is the second largest industry of carbon emissions in the world, and the road transportation industry accounts for a large proportion of this in the global transportation industry. The carbon emissions of the road transportation industry in six Asia-Pacific countries (Australia, Canada, China, India, Russia, and the United States) accounts for more than 50% of this in the global transportation industry. Therefore, it is of great significance to study driving factors of carbon emissions of the road transportation industry in six Asia-Pacific countries for controlling global carbon emissions. In this paper, the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method is adopted to analyze driving factors on carbon emissions of the road transportation industry in six Asia-Pacific countries from 1990 to 2016. The results show that carbon emissions of the road transportation industry in these six Asia-Pacific countries was 2961.37 million tons in 2016, with an increase of 84.43% compared with those in 1990. The economic output effect and the population size effect have positive driving influences on carbon emissions of the road transportation industry, in which the economic output effect is still the most important driving factor. The energy intensity effect and the transportation intensity effect have different influences on driving carbon emissions of the road transportation industry for these six Asia-Pacific Countries. Furthermore, the carbon emissions coefficient effect has a relatively small influence. Hence, in order to effectively control carbon emissions of the road transportation industry in these six Asia-Pacific countries, it is necessary to control the impact of economic developments on the environment, to reduce energy intensity by promoting the conversion of road transportation to rail and water transportation, and to lower the carbon emissions coefficient by continuously improving vehicle emission standards and fuel quality.