Decouple indicators on the CO_2 emission-economic growth linkage: The Jiangsu Province case

摘要

Jiangsu Province has become one of the most developed regions in China. Economic growth in jiangsu has occurred along with rising energy-related CO_2 emission levels. Thus, the link between economic activity and environmental pressure represents a risk to the global efforts toward CO_2 emission reductions. This paper examines the occurrence of a decoupling between the growth rates in economic activity and CO_2 emission from energy consumption in Jiangsu from 1995 to 2009. The results indicate that: (1) Along with the rapid economic development, CO_2 emission in Jiangsu rose from 18,781.46 × 10~4 t in 1995 to 52,029.24 × 10~4 t in 2009, with an average annual growth rate of 7.54%. Our results also show that CO_2 emission in Jiangsu Province is dominated by the secondary, which accounts for about 80% of total CO_2 emission. (2) During the study period, the whole Jiangsu economy experienced weak decoupling and strong decoupling except 2003-2005. However the decoupling states for the secondary and tertiary industries are similar to that of the whole economy.