Exploring the Dependence and Influencing Factors of Carbon Emissions from the Perspective of Population Development

Kuokuo Zhao, Xuezhu Cui, Zhanhang Zhou, Peixuan Huang and Dongliang Li
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Kuokuo Zhao: School of Management, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Xuezhu Cui: School of Management, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Zhanhang Zhou: School of Economics and Management, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China
Peixuan Huang: School of Management, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Dongliang Li: School of Economics and Management, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-20

Abstract: Working towards sustainable population development is an important part of carbon mitigation efforts, and decoupling carbon emissions from population development has great significance for carbon mitigation. Based on the construction of a comprehensive population development index (PDI), this study adopts a decoupling model to explore the dependence between carbon emissions and PDI across 30 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2017. Then, the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology (STIRPAT) model is used to investigate the impact of population factors on carbon emissions. The results show that the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and PDI has experienced a transformation from expansive negative coupling to expansive coupling and then to weak decoupling at the national level, while some provinces have experienced the same evolutionary process, but the decoupling state in most provinces is not ideal. Sending talent to western provinces and developing low-carbon supporting industries will accelerate carbon decoupling. At the national level, incorporating environmental protection into the existing education system as part of classroom teaching could contribute to carbon decoupling.

Keywords: decoupling; STTRPAT; carbon mitigation; population development index (PDI) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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