IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v365y2024ics0306261924006093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Driving forces of CO2 emissions from the transport, storage and postal sectors: A pathway to achieving carbon neutrality

Author

Listed:
  • Shang, Wen-Long
  • Ling, Yantao
  • Ochieng, Washington
  • Yang, Linchuan
  • Gao, Xing
  • Ren, Qingzhong
  • Chen, Yilin
  • Cao, Mengqiu

Abstract

In tandem with the urbanisation process, China's transport sector is currently experiencing rapid development and was ranked third out of all the industrial sectors in terms of generating CO2 emissions in 2020, which poses a huge challenge to achieving carbon neutrality. Primarily using the energy consumption data from China's transport, storage and postal sectors (TSPS) and input and output data between 2007 and 2020, this study first uses the Tapio decoupling model to evaluate the decoupling effect in the TSPS. Structural decomposition analysis is then applied to explore sectoral linkages and decompose the forces driving CO2 emissions. Additionally, we explore the main determinants of the energy structure effect and final demand in terms of energy consumption and industrial sector demand. Our results show that the target sector experienced a weak decoupling, which implies that the low-carbon transformation of this sector became increasingly apparent. Factor decomposition shows that improvements in energy intensity, energy structure and the production input and output structure have contributed significantly to reducing CO2 emissions, but these gains have been largely offset by final demand, resulting in a net reduction of 27.97 million tons from 2007 to 2020. The increased usage of low carbon forms of energy, such as natural gas, is the key driver behind the emissions reduction effect in terms of the energy structure. However, the higher final demand from the construction sector and the wholesale and retail trades are the main factors that have increased CO2 emissions. By adopting a sectoral and energy structure decomposition perspective, our study can be used to provide guidance to governments seeking to pursue carbon-reduction policies to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality, in the TSPS in particular.

Suggested Citation

  • Shang, Wen-Long & Ling, Yantao & Ochieng, Washington & Yang, Linchuan & Gao, Xing & Ren, Qingzhong & Chen, Yilin & Cao, Mengqiu, 2024. "Driving forces of CO2 emissions from the transport, storage and postal sectors: A pathway to achieving carbon neutrality," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:365:y:2024:i:c:s0306261924006093
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.123226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261924006093
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.123226?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.

    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:appene:v:365:y:2024:i:c:s0306261924006093. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    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.