Decomposition Analysis of CO 2 Emissions in 138 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Yasunori Ito and Hidemichi Fujii
Additional contact information
Yasunori Ito: Graduate School of Economics, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-21

Abstract: This study uses factor decomposition analysis from the extended framework of Kaya’s identity to determine the factors influencing CO 2 emissions in 138 countries worldwide from 2019–2022. The results revealed that CO 2 emissions decreased due to economic stagnation caused by COVID-19 from 2019–2020. From 2020–2021, CO 2 emissions increased due to economic recovery and increased dependence on fossil energy. However, the timing of recovery varies with income level. In low-income countries, economic recovery progressed more from 2021–2022 than from 2020–2021, which was the opposite of the situation in developed countries. In terms of technological factors, carbon intensity was a factor in increasing emissions in high-income countries during the recovery period, whereas fossil dependency and energy efficiency were factors in increasing emissions in upper-medium- and lower-medium-income countries, respectively. The results of the decoupling analysis indicate that lower-medium-income countries tend to exhibit undesirable decoupling. Furthermore, from an analysis of the transition of decoupling states, it is necessary to reduce the carbon intensity and fossil fuel dependency to achieve a desirable decoupling relationship between CO 2 and economic development.

Keywords: decoupling analysis; log mean Divisia index; decomposition analysis; CO 2 emission; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/23/5835/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/23/5835/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:23:p:5835-:d:1526415

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().