IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v328y2025ics0360544225020158.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Characteristics of agricultural carbon emissions in arid zones, drivers and decoupling effects: evidence from Xinjiang, China

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Xiang
  • Chen, Beizi
  • Liu, Haijun
  • Xu, Mengqi
  • Yang, Haijun

Abstract

The conflict between agricultural development and fragile ecosystems in arid regions is inevitable, highlighting the importance of synergizing the relationship between oasis agricultural economies and resource environments. This study focuses on Xinjiang, China, analyzing data from 2001 to 2020 to assess the total carbon emissions and intensity of crop and livestock husbandry. Utilizing the LMDI decomposition method and the Tapio decoupling model, this research examines the influencing factors of agricultural carbon emissions and their decoupling effects. The findings indicate that: (1) The total carbon emissions from agriculture in Xinjiang have steadily increased, with carbon intensity decreasing from 1.24 t per 10,000 yuan in 2001 to 0.24 t per 10,000 yuan in 2020, reflecting a significant downward trend. In terms of the composition of agricultural carbon emissions, the primary sources of emissions in both crop husbandry and livestock husbandry are fertilizers and enteric fermentation from livestock, respectively; (2) Structural and efficiency factors have both moderated the growth of carbon emissions, whereas economic and labor factors have contributed to their increase, with the emissions driven by promoting factors surpassing the reductions achieved through inhibiting factors; (3) The decoupling status of carbon emissions in crop husbandry and livestock husbandry exhibits fluctuations, but shows an overall trend toward strong or weak decoupling. By increasing investment in technology, optimizing industrial structures, and promoting a low-carbon and green transformation of agriculture, this study provides theoretical guidance and empirical evidence for achieving the "dual carbon" goals in arid and semi-arid regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Xiang & Chen, Beizi & Liu, Haijun & Xu, Mengqi & Yang, Haijun, 2025. "Characteristics of agricultural carbon emissions in arid zones, drivers and decoupling effects: evidence from Xinjiang, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:328:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225020158
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136373
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225020158
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.136373?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ang, B.W., 2015. "LMDI decomposition approach: A guide for implementation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 233-238.
    2. Miao, Ankang & Yuan, Yue & Wu, Han & Ma, Xin & Shao, Chenyu & Xiang, Sheng, 2024. "Pathway for China's provincial carbon emission peak: A case study of the Jiangsu Province," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    3. Yanqiao Deng & Minda Ma & Nan Zhou & Zhili Ma & Ran Yan & Xin Ma, 2024. "China's plug-in hybrid electric vehicle transition: an operational carbon perspective," Papers 2405.07308, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    4. Luo, Haizhi & Wang, Chenglong & Li, Cangbai & Meng, Xiangzhao & Yang, Xiaohu & Tan, Qian, 2024. "Multi-scale carbon emission characterization and prediction based on land use and interpretable machine learning model: A case study of the Yangtze River Delta Region, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    5. Xie, Pinjie & Shu, Yalin & Sun, Feihu & Li, Pin, 2024. "Decoupling economic development from carbon emissions: Insights from Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    6. Naeem, Muhammad Abubakr & Appiah, Michael & Taden, John & Amoasi, Richard & Gyamfi, Bright Akwasi, 2023. "Transitioning to clean energy: Assessing the impact of renewable energy, bio-capacity and access to clean fuel on carbon emissions in OECD economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    7. Hanjin Li & Hu Tian & Xinyu Liu & Jiansheng You, 2024. "Transitioning to low-carbon agriculture: the non-linear role of digital inclusive finance in China’s agricultural carbon emissions," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Obuobi, Bright & Zhang, Yifeng, 2024. "Green investment and its transformative impact on energy use in agriculture: A holistic approach towards carbon dioxide emissions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    9. David Laborde & Abdullah Mamun & Will Martin & Valeria Piñeiro & Rob Vos, 2021. "Agricultural subsidies and global greenhouse gas emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Teresa Serra & David Zilberman & Barry K. Goodwin & Keijo Hyvonen, 2005. "Replacement of Agricultural Price Supports by Area Payments in the European Union and the Effects on Pesticide Use," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(4), pages 870-884.
    11. Radwan, Amira & Hongyun, Han & Achraf, Abdelhak & Mustafa, Ahmed M., 2022. "Energy use and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions drivers in Egypt's economy: Focus on the agricultural sector with a structural decomposition analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    12. Deng, Yanqiao & Ma, Minda & Zhou, Nan & Zou, Chenchen & Ma, Zhili & Yan, Ran & Ma, Xin, 2025. "Provincial allocation of China's commercial building operational carbon toward carbon neutrality," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 384(C).
    13. Jianping Huang & Haipeng Yu & Xiaodan Guan & Guoyin Wang & Ruixia Guo, 2016. "Accelerated dryland expansion under climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 6(2), pages 166-171, February.
    14. Dumortier, Jerome & Elobeid, Amani, 2021. "Effects of a carbon tax in the United States on agricultural markets and carbon emissions from land-use change," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Joeri Rogelj & Michel den Elzen & Niklas Höhne & Taryn Fransen & Hanna Fekete & Harald Winkler & Roberto Schaeffer & Fu Sha & Keywan Riahi & Malte Meinshausen, 2016. "Paris Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 °C," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7609), pages 631-639, June.
    16. Elahi, Ehsan & Khalid, Zainab & Zhang, Zhixin, 2022. "Understanding farmers’ intention and willingness to install renewable energy technology: A solution to reduce the environmental emissions of agriculture," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    17. Lin, Yuancheng & Ma, Linwei & Li, Zheng & Ni, Weidou, 2023. "The carbon reduction potential by improving technical efficiency from energy sources to final services in China: An extended Kaya identity analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
    18. Yanqiao Deng & Minda Ma & Nan Zhou & Chenchen Zou & Zhili Ma & Ran Yan & Xin Ma, 2024. "Provincial allocation of China's commercial building operational carbon towards carbon neutrality," Papers 2412.14523, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2025.
    19. Rui Song & Jing Liu & Kunyu Niu, 2023. "Agricultural Carbon Emissions Embodied in China’s Foreign Trade and Its Driving Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Sun, Jingxin & Sun, Shikun & Yin, Yali & Wang, Yubao & Zhao, Jinfeng & Tang, Yihe & Wu, Pute, 2024. "Decoupling trend and drivers between grain water‑carbon footprint and economy-ecology development in China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    21. Xu, Bin & Lin, Boqiang, 2020. "Investigating drivers of CO2 emission in China’s heavy industry: A quantile regression analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    22. Hao, Yu & Zhang, Zong-Yong & Yang, Chuxiao & Wu, Haitao, 2021. "Does structural labor change affect CO2 emissions? Theoretical and empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hong Yuan & Minda Ma & Nan Zhou & Zhili Ma, 2025. "Assessing provincial carbon budgets for residential buildings to advance net-zero ambitions," Papers 2503.05795, arXiv.org.
    2. Rivera-Niquepa, Juan David & De Oliveira-De Jesus, Paulo M. & Yusta, Jose M., 2025. "Trend-based multi-period decomposition and decoupling methodology for energy-related carbon dioxide emissions: A case study of Portugal," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Zou, Chenchen & Ma, Minda & Zhou, Nan & Feng, Wei & You, Kairui & Zhang, Shufan, 2023. "Toward carbon free by 2060: A decarbonization roadmap of operational residential buildings in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    4. Guanghua Zheng & Yifan He & Zhaohan Lu & Yuping Wu, 2025. "Research on Spatial and Temporal Divergence and Influencing Factors of the Coal Industry Transformation and Development Under Energy Security and Dual-Carbon Target," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-28, March.
    5. Miao, Ankang & Yuan, Yue & Wu, Han & Ma, Xin & Shao, Chenyu & Xiang, Sheng, 2024. "Pathway for China's provincial carbon emission peak: A case study of the Jiangsu Province," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    6. Adel Ben Youssef & Mounir Dahmani & Mohamed Mabrouki, 2024. "Decoupling carbon emissions and economic growth in Tunisia: pathways to sustainable development," Chapters, in: Mohamed Arouri & Mathieu Gomes (ed.), Handbook on Energy and Economic Growth, chapter 5, pages 103-127, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Li, Shupeng & Niu, Liping & Yue, Qiang & Zhang, Tingan, 2022. "Trajectory, driving forces, and mitigation potential of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China's primary aluminum industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PB).
    8. Santiago Guerrero & Ben Henderson & Hugo Valin & Charlotte Janssens & Petr Havlik & Amanda Palazzo, 2022. "The impacts of agricultural trade and support policy reform on climate change adaptation and environmental performance: A model-based analysis," OECD Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Papers 180, OECD Publishing.
    9. Wang, RenFeng & Ren, Chao, 2025. "Local energy zone for urban carbon emissions studies – Accounting, characterization and prediction," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 390(C).
    10. Bingquan Liu & Boyang Nie & Yakun Wang & Xuemin Han & Yongqing Li, 2023. "Does New Infrastructure Affect Regional Carbon Intensity? Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-20, December.
    11. Liu, Xiao & Hang, Ye & Wang, Qunwei & Chiu, Ching-Ren & Zhou, Dequn, 2022. "The role of energy consumption in global carbon intensity change: A meta-frontier-based production-theoretical decomposition analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    12. Jang, Minchul & Min, Baehyun, 2025. "Stochastic forecasting of long-term greenhouse gas emissions and energy transitions: A comparative analysis of the US, EU, China, and Korea," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    13. Mehmood, Jafir & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Wang, Jing & Malik, Muhammad Nasir, 2025. "Unveiling the dynamics of agriculture greenhouse gas emissions: The role of energy consumptions and natural resources," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 379(C).
    14. Daiva Makutėnienė & Algirdas Justinas Staugaitis & Valdemaras Makutėnas & Gunta Grīnberga-Zālīte, 2023. "The Impact of Economic Growth and Urbanisation on Environmental Degradation in the Baltic States: An Extended Kaya Identity," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-25, September.
    15. Wang, Bingzheng & Lu, Xiaofei & Zhang, Cancan & Wang, Hongsheng, 2022. "Cascade and hybrid processes for co-generating solar-based fuels and electricity via combining spectral splitting technology and membrane reactor," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 782-799.
    16. Cai, Angzu & Wang, Leyi & Zhang, Yuhao & Wu, Haoran & Zhang, Huai & Guo, Ru & Wu, Jiang, 2025. "Uncovering the multiple socio-economic driving factors of carbon emissions in nine urban agglomerations of China based on machine learning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    17. Alexander C. Abajian & Tamma Carleton & Kyle C. Meng & Olivier Deschênes, 2025. "Quantifying the global climate feedback from energy-based adaptation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Serra, Teresa & Zilberman, David & Goodwin, Barry K. & Featherstone, Allen M., 2005. "Effects of Decoupling on the Average and the Variability of Output," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24601, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Sapkota, Krishna & Gemechu, Eskinder & Oni, Abayomi Olufemi & Ma, Linwei & Kumar, Amit, 2022. "Greenhouse gas emissions from Canadian oil sands supply chains to China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    20. Zhu, Bangzhu & Su, Bin & Li, Yingzhu & Ng, Tsan Sheng, 2020. "Embodied energy and intensity in China’s (normal and processing) exports and their driving forces, 2005-2015," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:328:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225020158. 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.