Factors Influencing Carbon Emissions in High Carbon Industries in the Zhejiang Province and Decoupling Effect Analysis

Abstract

High-carbon emission industries are the most important source of carbon emissions in the Zhejiang Province. Due to the differences in the development level of various industries, it is necessary to adjust the carbon emission reduction strategies of various industries. As the first ecological province in China, the promotion of carbon emission reduction in high-carbon industries in the Zhejiang Province plays an important leading role in the development of low-carbon economy in other industries and other provinces in China. Taking eight high-carbon industries in Zhejiang Province as the research object, this paper uses the LMDI factor decomposition model to deconstruct the influencing factors and effects of carbon emissions in eight industries in the Zhejiang Province from 2010 to 2021. On this basis, the Tapio decoupling model is applied to study the reasons and driving factors of the decoupling between economic growth and carbon emissions. The results showed that: (1) During the study period, the total carbon emissions of eight industries in the Zhejiang Province increased by 24,312,200 t, showing an overall upward trend. (2) The effect of economic growth and population size led to the rapid growth of carbon emissions in eight industries in the Zhejiang Province, and the effect of energy intensity on carbon emission reduction was the most significant; the effect of industry structure presented a trend of first promoting and then inhibiting, and the effect of carbon emission coefficient always inhibited carbon emissions. (3) The population size has restricted decoupling efforts; energy intensity has the greatest impact on the realization of industry decoupling; energy structure and industry structure decoupling efforts are small; the carbon emission coefficient has always influenced decoupling efforts. This research paper will provide suggestions and policies for the development of low-carbon economy in Zhejiang Province.