IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v183y2019icp837-843.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research on the decoupling trend and mitigation potential of CO2 emissions from China's transport sector

Author

Listed:
  • Song, Yan
  • Zhang, Ming
  • Shan, Cheng

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the decoupling status and mitigation potential of CO2 emissions from China's transport sector over the period 1991–2015. Firstly, this paper utilizes the Log-Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) technique to identify influencing factors, which govern CO2 emissions from China's transport sector. Over the study period, the CO2 coefficient effect (ΔCcft) was the main factor for decreasing CO2 emissions. However, the economic growth effect (ΔCgt) was the main factor for increasing CO2 emissions. Then, the decoupling indicator is also constructed based on the above influencing factors, which can be utilized to reflect the dependence degree of economic development on CO2 emissions from China's transport sector. During 1991–2015, the CO2 emissions from China's transport sector presented expansive coupling (EC) with economic development. Weak decoupling (WD) only appeared in the sub-period 1991–1995. The CO2 emissions only presented 3 decoupling grades in all sub-period and the period 1991–2015: Ⅱ, Ⅲ, and Ⅳ. Furthermore, the above influencing factors are also used to establish a theoretical mitigation model, which is used to reflect the mitigation potential of CO2 emissions from China's transport sector. Finally, the occurrence of CO2 mitigation only appeared in 3 sub-periods: 1991–1995, 2005–2010, and 2010–2015.

Suggested Citation

  • Song, Yan & Zhang, Ming & Shan, Cheng, 2019. "Research on the decoupling trend and mitigation potential of CO2 emissions from China's transport sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 837-843.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:183:y:2019:i:c:p:837-843
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.07.011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544219313386
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2019.07.011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hickman, Robin & Ashiru, Olu & Banister, David, 2011. "Transitions to low carbon transport futures: strategic conversations from London and Delhi," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 1553-1562.
    2. Kveiborg, Ole & Fosgerau, Mogens, 2007. "Decomposing the decoupling of Danish road freight traffic growth and economic growth," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 39-48, January.
    3. Zhang, Ming & Li, Huanan & Zhou, Min & Mu, Hailin, 2011. "Decomposition analysis of energy consumption in Chinese transportation sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 2279-2285, June.
    4. Sorrell, Steve & Lehtonen, Markku & Stapleton, Lee & Pujol, Javier & Toby Champion,, 2012. "Decoupling of road freight energy use from economic growth in the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 84-97.
    5. Andrés, Lidia & Padilla, Emilio, 2018. "Driving factors of GHG emissions in the EU transport activity," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 60-74.
    6. Tapio, Petri, 2005. "Towards a theory of decoupling: degrees of decoupling in the EU and the case of road traffic in Finland between 1970 and 2001," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 137-151, March.
    7. Alises, Ana & Vassallo, Jose Manuel & Guzmán, Andrés Felipe, 2014. "Road freight transport decoupling: A comparative analysis between the United Kingdom and Spain," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 186-193.
    8. Wang, H. & Zhou, P. & Zhou, D.Q., 2012. "An empirical study of direct rebound effect for passenger transport in urban China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 452-460.
    9. Lu, I.J. & Lin, Sue J. & Lewis, Charles, 2007. "Decomposition and decoupling effects of carbon dioxide emission from highway transportation in Taiwan, Germany, Japan and South Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3226-3235, June.
    10. Wang, Wenwen & Liu, Xiao & Zhang, Ming & Song, Xuefeng, 2014. "Using a new generalized LMDI (logarithmic mean Divisia index) method to analyze China's energy consumption," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 617-622.
    11. Yue-Jun Zhang & Ya-Bin Da, 2013. "Decomposing the changes of energy-related carbon emissions in China: evidence from the PDA approach," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 69(1), pages 1109-1122, October.
    12. Timilsina, Govinda R. & Shrestha, Ashish, 2009. "Why have CO2 emissions increased in the transport sector in Asia ? underlying factors and policy options," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5098, The World Bank.
    13. Ang, B. W., 2004. "Decomposition analysis for policymaking in energy:: which is the preferred method?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1131-1139, June.
    14. Yan Song & Ming Zhang, 2017. "Using a new decoupling indicator (ZM decoupling indicator) to study the relationship between the economic growth and energy consumption in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 88(2), pages 1013-1022, September.
    15. Luo, Xiao & Dong, Liang & Dou, Yi & Li, Yan & Liu, Kai & Ren, Jingzheng & Liang, Hanwei & Mai, Xianmin, 2017. "Factor decomposition analysis and causal mechanism investigation on urban transport CO2 emissions: Comparative study on Shanghai and Tokyo," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 658-668.
    16. Timilsina, Govinda R. & Shrestha, Ashish, 2009. "Transport sector CO2 emissions growth in Asia: Underlying factors and policy options," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4523-4539, November.
    17. Talbi, Besma, 2017. "CO2 emissions reduction in road transport sector in Tunisia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 232-238.
    18. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W., 2008. "Decomposition of aggregate CO2 emissions: A production-theoretical approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 1054-1067, May.
    19. Alshehry, Atef Saad & Belloumi, Mounir, 2017. "Study of the environmental Kuznets curve for transport carbon dioxide emissions in Saudi Arabia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1339-1347.
    20. Azlina, A.A. & Law, Siong Hook & Nik Mustapha, Nik Hashim, 2014. "Dynamic linkages among transport energy consumption, income and CO2 emission in Malaysia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 598-606.
    21. Du, Huibin & Chen, Zhenni & Peng, Binbin & Southworth, Frank & Ma, Shoufeng & Wang, Yuan, 2019. "What drives CO2 emissions from the transport sector? A linkage analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 195-204.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liang Li & Yanghong Wang & Meixuen Tan & Huaping Sun & Bangzhu Zhu, 2023. "Effect of Environmental Regulation on Energy-Intensive Enterprises’ Green Innovation Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Neves, Sónia Almeida & Marques, António Cardoso, 2021. "The substitution of fossil fuels in the US transportation energy mix: Are emissions decoupling from economic growth?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Dong, Kangyin & Hochman, Gal & Timilsina, Govinda R., 2020. "Do drivers of CO2 emission growth alter overtime and by the stage of economic development?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Yang, Xue & Xu, He & Su, Bin, 2022. "Factor decomposition for global and national aggregate energy intensity change during 2000–2014," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PB).
    5. Lin, Boqiang & Raza, Muhammad Yousaf, 2021. "Analysis of electricity consumption in Pakistan using index decomposition and decoupling approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    6. Zou, Weitao & Li, Jianwei & Yang, Qingqing & Wan, Xinming & He, Yuntang & Lan, Hao, 2023. "A real-time energy management approach with fuel cell and battery competition-synergy control for the fuel cell vehicle," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    7. Xie, Pinjie & Gong, Ningyu & Sun, Feihu & Li, Pin & Pan, Xianyou, 2023. "What factors contribute to the extent of decoupling economic growth and energy carbon emissions in China?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    8. Liqiang Chen & Ming Gao, 2020. "The effects of three types of China's official turnover on air quality: A regression discontinuity study," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 1081-1101, September.
    9. Jingyuan Li & Jinhua Cheng & Beidi Diao & Yaqi Wu & Peiqi Hu & Shurui Jiang, 2021. "Social and Economic Factors of Industrial Carbon Dioxide in China: From the Perspective of Spatiotemporal Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, April.
    10. Di Trolio, P. & Di Giorgio, P. & Genovese, M. & Frasci, E. & Minutillo, M., 2020. "A hybrid power-unit based on a passive fuel cell/battery system for lightweight vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    11. Weiguo Fan & Mengmeng Meng & Jianchang Lu & Xiaobin Dong & Hejie Wei & Xuechao Wang & Qing Zhang, 2020. "Decoupling Elasticity and Driving Factors of Energy Consumption and Economic Development in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-20, February.
    12. Goh, Tian & Zhong, Sheng & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin & Ng, Szu Hui & Chai, Kah-Hin, 2021. "Driving factors of changes in international maritime energy consumption: Microdata evidence 2014–2017," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. Xianen Wang & Baoyang Qin & Hanning Wang & Xize Dong & Haiyan Duan, 2022. "Carbon Mitigation Pathways of Urban Transportation under Cold Climatic Conditions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-16, April.
    14. Sheng, Pengfei & Li, Jun & Zhai, Mengxin & Huang, Shoujun, 2020. "Coupling of economic growth and reduction in carbon emissions at the efficiency level: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    15. Alataş, Sedat, 2022. "Do environmental technologies help to reduce transport sector CO2 emissions? Evidence from the EU15 countries," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    16. Shiqing Zhang & Yaping Li & Zheng Liu & Xiaofei Kou & Wenlong Zheng, 2023. "Towards a Decoupling between Economic Expansion and Carbon Dioxide Emissions of the Transport Sector in the Yellow River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-26, February.
    17. Bu, Chujie & Cui, Xueqin & Li, Ruiyao & Li, Jin & Zhang, Yaxin & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia, 2021. "Achieving net-zero emissions in China’s passenger transport sector through regionally tailored mitigation strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    18. Wang, Juan & Li, Ziming & Wu, Tong & Wu, Siyu & Yin, Tingwei, 2022. "The decoupling analysis of CO2 emissions from power generation in Chinese provincial power sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    19. Liguo Zhang & Cuiting Jiang & Xiang Cai & Xin Huang & Jun Wu & Ping Chen, 2023. "Transport-Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: Evidence From Belt and Road," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Changzheng Zhu & Wenbo Du, 2019. "A Research on Driving Factors of Carbon Emissions of Road Transportation Industry in Six Asia-Pacific Countries Based on the LMDI Decomposition Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    2. M'raihi, Rafaa & Mraihi, Talel & Harizi, Riadh & Taoufik Bouzidi, Mohamed, 2015. "Carbon emissions growth and road freight: Analysis of the influencing factors in Tunisia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 121-129.
    3. Luo, Xiao & Dong, Liang & Dou, Yi & Li, Yan & Liu, Kai & Ren, Jingzheng & Liang, Hanwei & Mai, Xianmin, 2017. "Factor decomposition analysis and causal mechanism investigation on urban transport CO2 emissions: Comparative study on Shanghai and Tokyo," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 658-668.
    4. Li, Fangyi & Cai, Bofeng & Ye, Zhaoyang & Wang, Zheng & Zhang, Wei & Zhou, Pan & Chen, Jian, 2019. "Changing patterns and determinants of transportation carbon emissions in Chinese cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 562-575.
    5. Shiraki, Hiroto & Matsumoto, Ken'ichi & Shigetomi, Yosuke & Ehara, Tomoki & Ochi, Yuki & Ogawa, Yuki, 2020. "Factors affecting CO2 emissions from private automobiles in Japan: The impact of vehicle occupancy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    6. Boqiang Lin, & Wang, Miao, 2019. "Possibilities of decoupling for China’s energy consumption from economic growth: A temporal-spatial analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 951-960.
    7. Wang, Miao & Feng, Chao, 2018. "Decomposing the change in energy consumption in China's nonferrous metal industry: An empirical analysis based on the LMDI method," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2652-2663.
    8. Xue-ting Jiang & Min Su & Rongrong Li, 2018. "Investigating the Factors Influencing the Decoupling of Transport-Related Carbon Emissions from Turnover Volume in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-17, August.
    9. Luo, Xiao & Dong, Liang & Dou, Yi & Liang, Hanwei & Ren, Jingzheng & Fang, Kai, 2016. "Regional disparity analysis of Chinese freight transport CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2007: Driving forces and policy challenges," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Goh, Tian & Zhong, Sheng & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin & Ng, Szu Hui & Chai, Kah-Hin, 2021. "Driving factors of changes in international maritime energy consumption: Microdata evidence 2014–2017," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    11. Huang, Fei & Zhou, Dequn & Wang, Qunwei & Hang, Ye, 2019. "Decomposition and attribution analysis of the transport sector’s carbon dioxide intensity change in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 343-358.
    12. Sobrino, Natalia & Monzon, Andres, 2014. "The impact of the economic crisis and policy actions on GHG emissions from road transport in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 486-498.
    13. Huali Sun & Mengzhen Li & Yaofeng Xue, 2019. "Examining the Factors Influencing Transport Sector CO 2 Emissions and Their Efficiency in Central China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-15, August.
    14. Wang, Miao & Feng, Chao, 2018. "Investigating the drivers of energy-related CO2 emissions in China’s industrial sector: From regional and provincial perspectives," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 136-147.
    15. Reham Alhindawi & Yousef Abu Nahleh & Arun Kumar & Nirajan Shiwakoti, 2020. "Projection of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the Road Transport Sector Based on Multivariate Regression and the Double Exponential Smoothing Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-18, November.
    16. Wang, Miao & Feng, Chao, 2017. "Analysis of energy-related CO2 emissions in China’s mining industry: Evidence and policy implications," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 77-87.
    17. Manel Daldoul & Ahlem Dakhlaoui, 2018. "Using the LMDI Decomposition Approach to Analyze the Influencing Factors of Carbon Emissions in Tunisian Transportation Sector," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 8(6), pages 22-28.
    18. Raza, Muhammad Yousaf & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Future outlook and influencing factors analysis of natural gas consumption in Bangladesh: An economic and policy perspectives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    19. Liang, Wei & Gan, Ting & Zhang, Wei, 2019. "Dynamic evolution of characteristics and decomposition of factors influencing industrial carbon dioxide emissions in China: 1991–2015," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 93-106.
    20. Xiaoshu Cao & Shishu OuYang & Dan Liu & Wenyue Yang, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Patterns and Decomposition Analysis of CO 2 Emissions from Transportation in the Pearl River Delta," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:183:y:2019:i:c:p:837-843. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.