Drivers for energy consumption: A comparative analysis of China and India

Qiang Wang and Rongrong Li

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2016, vol. 62, issue C, 954-962

Abstract: China and India accounted for two-thirds of the world׳s rise in energy use between 2000 and 2012. This paper aimed to calculate the P (population)–A (affluence)–T (technology) effects of energy use in China and India – the world׳s two most populous and largest developing countries. To this end, a combination of the IPAT method and the logarithmic mean divisia index technique, and annual time-series data on population, energy consumption, and gross domestic product during 1970–2012 are used. In China, a 12.53-fold growth of energy use emissions from 1970 to 2012 is driven by a combination of rapid growth in individual income and slow growth in population, with offset by technological advancement since 1980. The accelerating rise in energy use since 2000 is a result of accelerating growth rates in individual income and a reversal of earlier declining in energy intensity (technological advancement). Unlike China, the long-term rise in energy use exceeded the long-term rise in individual income in India. In addition, a strong trend of decline in energy intensity has not yet occurred in India. Thus, a 7.39-folds growth of Indian energy use for 1970–2012 was a result of relatively rapid increase in population and relatively slow increase in income, without effective offset by technological advancement. It suggests that market-oriented economic and energy reforms need to send the correct price signal to promote energy-efficient technologies thus improving energy efficiency, which is the key to a sustainable energy future in China and India.

Keywords: Energy consumption; Technical effects; Affluence effects; Population effects; IPAT and LMDI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.04.048

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