Analysis of?carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and economic growth in?China

摘要

This study examines the?nexus of?carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, energy consumption (EC) and gross domestic products (GDP), using an?Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test approach of?co-integration and error-correction model (ECM) for?the period 1971–2015. The?aim of?the research is to?i) examine the?relationship between CO2 and GDP as?“cross-coupling, relative decoupling, or absolute decoupling,” and validate the?existence of?the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis; ii) detect causality between CO2 emissions, EC, and GDP, and scrutinize their impacts. The?ARDL results confirm a long-run and short-run co-integration relationship between the?variables. The?relationship between CO2 emissions and GDP is “relatively decoupling,” and the?EKC exists in?China. Its?CO2 emissions are more explained by?EC and contribute twofold of?GDP. In?the long run, there was?significant negative causality from CO2 emission and GDP to?EC. This indicates Chinese economic development structure should be re-designed towards energy-saving and decarbonized economic structure. Moreover, the?central and provincial governments of?China should synchronize optimal energy utilization and green economic structure to?mitigate environmental deterioration and climate change.