China's Regional Carbon Emissions From The Perspective Of Final Demand

The emissions of greenhouse gases,mainly composed of carbon dioxide,have led to the increasingly intensified global warming.Its long-term threat to the level of humanity and social development has made people gradually realize the importance of energy conservation and emission reduction,and the promotion of low-carbon economy.With the rapid expansion of China's economic scale and the continuous advancement of urbanization,household consumption has become one of the mot important source of energy consumption and CO2 emissions.At the same time,the implementation of investment-driven economic growth strategies and the increasingly significant role of the government have led a sharp rise in investment and government consumption.Such transition in the pattern of final demand has further led to a noticeable increase in China's CO2 emissions.Thus,it's vital to better understand the impact of changes in consumption activites on CO2 emissions in this process of China's rapid economic growth and transition.Therefore,this study measured the consumption-based CO2 emissions of each region in China from the perspective of final demand and examined the CO2 emissions embodied in inter-regional trade,and then analyzed the current situations,variation characteristic and regional differences of regional consumption-based CO2 emissions and carbon emission transfers.As well,the article also explored the driving factors affecting the growth of CO2 emissions.All of these would help us formulate more effective emission reduction policies and have theoretical and practical significance for China's next implementation of CO2 emissions reduction policies and low-carbon economic development strategies.First of all,this study accounted the regional consumption-base CO2 emissions driven by final demand based on the calculation of direct carbon emission coefficients of sectors for eight regions in China,using the MRIO tables for China in 2002,2007 and 2012.Then a series of analysis was conducted from the perspective of regional differences,sectoral distributions and final demand types.The results show that the total consumption-based CO2 emissions of each region are rising and there are obvious regional differences.The per-capita consumption-based CO2 emissions shows a downward trend from east to weat and from north to south.From the perspective of sectoral distributions,the consumption-based CO2 emissions are mainly concentrated in the energy industries and heavy manufacturing sectors,sevices and agriculture.From the perspective of final demand types,fixed capital formation and household consumption contributed almost all the CO2 emissions in 2012,accounting for 63%and 30%respectively.Secondly,on the basis of regional consumption-based CO2 emissions accounting,the regional contributions of them were analyzed and the CO2 emissions embodied in inter-regional trade were examined from the perspective of space and sector.The results show that the CO2 emissions embodied in inter-regional trade mainly transfer from the developed eastern areas to developing central and weasten areas.As a result,the carbon emission transfers alleviate the pressure of carbon emissions in eastern regions to some extent.Along with the increase in consumption demand for consumer goods and investment products,Southwest and Northeast China shifted from being net CO2 emission inflow regions to net CO2 emission outflow regions in 2012,which meaned the CO2 emission transfer pattern had changed considerably.From the perspective of industrial characteristics,the central and weastern regions undertake large amount of carbon emission transfers in energy-intensive sectors and heavy manufacturing industries,while the net CO2 emission inflow industries in the eastern regions are mainly labor-intensive industries and processing manufacturing industries.Thirdly,through the structural decomposition analysis of total regional consumption-based CO2 emissions and carbon emission transfers,it is found that the direct carbon intensity is the only important force for inhibiting the growth of carbon emissions,while the input technology and per-capita final demand are the main driving forces for promoting the increase of carbon emissions.The distribution of final demand type,the product structure of final demand and the population also have a certain role in accelerating the growth of carbon emissions,but the influence is relatively small.Finally,based on the conclusions drawn from the empirical analysis above,reasonable policy suggestions are put forward from the aspects of guiding low-carbon investment and green consumption,optimizing industrial structure,improving energy efficiency to reduce CO2 intensity,setting differentiated carbon emission reduction targets and promoting inter-regional joint for emission reduction.