Analysis of factors affecting CO2 emissions by civil buildings in China's urban areas

Civil buildings in urban areas are one of the main sources of CO2 emissions. Many factors in civil buildings cause CO2 emissions to increase in China's urban areas. Factors that have influenced CO2 emissions from civil buildings in Chinese cities between 1997 and 2007 are studied using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method. The following factors influence the increase of CO2 emissions: urban population, per capita floor space, building structure, building energy intensity and carbon emission coefficients. The results show that, between 1997 and 2007, increase in CO2 emissions by civil buildings in China's urban areas was largely driven by the increasing urban population and per capita floor space, which have contributed 56 and 87%, respectively, and present a trend of significant increase. The structural proportion change of areas of residential buildings and public buildings caused less of an impact of CO2 emissions. The reduction in the intensity of energy consumption of buildings is the major factor that could deter the increase in the rate of CO2 emissions, contributing −45%. However, this deterrence is slowing down. While maintaining the speed of urbanization of China, the key measures to suppress the increase in civil building CO2 emissions in urban areas are to reduce the intensity of building energy consumption and to control the per capita floor space.