Does population have a larger impact on carbon dioxide emissions than income? Evidence from a cross-regional panel analysis in China

By Yang Zhou, Yan-sui Liu. 2016

173 citations recorded by the source corpus.

As global warming intensifies, the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases have attracted great global attention. However, questions regarding whether, how and to what extent demographic factors and processes affect carbon emissions have not yet been fully explained – particularly in China. This study used an improved STIRPAT model to reassess the impact of demographic and income changes on China’s energy-related CO2 emissions at the national and regional levels using balanced provincial panel data from the 1990–2012 period. Whereas most previous studies of emission–population/income elasticity in China have yielded wide-ranging estimates, this study showed that income rather than demographic change has been the dominant driving force behind China’s growing CO2 emissions. Urbanisation has increased energy consumption and emissions, except in western China. Changes in the age structure have had a statistically insignificant effect on energy use, but resulted in increased national emissions – particularly in eastern China. Shrinking household size did not reduce energy use and emissions, indicating that improved residential energy efficiency might reduce emissions. Changing the traditional mode of economic growth, reasonable controlling the pace of urbanisation, improving energy efficiency and upgrading industrial structures may yet be necessary to mitigate the environmental impact of human activities in China.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/03ba4dccfa2c6fdf869011ee903db37cea2de752

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Ya Wu
2. Christian Brand
3. P. Zhao
4. Liyin Shen
5. Peilin Li
6. C. Shuai

In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

1. Christian Brand
2. P. Zhao
3. Peilin Li

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

1. Christian Brand
2. P. Zhao
3. Liyin Shen
4. Peilin Li

Citations in the corpus

• Future energy use and CO2 emissions of urban passenger transport in China: A travel behavior and urban form based approach (2018, methodology): “Whereas, Wang, Liu [16] found in Beijing (2000–2012) that increased vehicle-use intensity was one of the main driving forces behind CO2 emissions and promoting individual travel behavioral change played an important role in mitigating urban transport emissions.”
• Identifying the key impact factors of carbon emission in China: Results from a largely expanded pool of potential impact factors (2018, methodology): “China, as the largest emitter in the world, has taken up more than a quarter of the global carbon emission (Ma et al., 2017a).”