Is China’s Target of a 40-45% Reduction in Carbon Dioxide Emissions Plausible?

Mpho Bosupeng

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In the early days of industrialisation, economists believed that the ramifications of economic growth will far outweigh the potential damage to the environment. Today the concern is the rising magnitude of emissions. Many economies are under immense pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon taxation and absorption technologies seem to be the main mechanisms controlling emissions in different nations. China proposed her target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 40-45% by 2025. The purpose of this study is to determine if China’s ambition of reducing its carbon dioxide emissions is feasible. This investigation also examines the potential effects of China's emissions on the economic growth of other countries. The study demonstrates that China’s target may not only reduce her output, but may also adversely affect the economic growth of others. This article further reveals that unemployment in China is likely to soar during the reduction in emissions and energy consumption. Additionally, this paper evaluates the effects of green taxation on carbon dioxide emissions. In conclusion, there is a possibility that China may reach her emissions target by 2025. However, the country faces a dilemma between economic growth and environmental preservation. It is recommended that China should explore techniques which will reduce emissions but not impinge negatively on economic growth.

Keywords: carbon dioxide emissions; economic growth; green taxation; energy consumption. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q53 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016, Revised 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/78044/1/MPRA_paper_78044.pdf original version (application/pdf)

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:pra:mprapa:78044

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().