This is a Free article. You will receive access to the full text.

Does Global Value Chain Participation Decouple Chinese Development from CO2 Emissions? A Structural Decomposition Analysis

Free Article

Abstract:
Decoupling economic activities and CO2 emissions is central to achieving the climate goals of China. The country’s participation in global value chains has profound impacts on its economy as well as CO2 emissions. Assessing the impacts is fundamental to identifying strategies to decouple China’s development from emissions. To this end, we adopt the multi-region structural decomposition analysis technique to quantify the global value chain determinants of China’s CO2 emission intensity from both the production and consumption perspectives. It is found that China’s decoupling from emissions in 2007–2012 was driven mainly by global value chains. Nonetheless the decoupling slowed down after the global financial crisis. In particular, the value chains within China played a more important role in greening Chinese economy. Despite the considerable improvement in 2007–2012, global value chains remained the primary obstacle to environmental sustainability of China. More detailed results with policy implications are presented.

Download Executive Summary Download PDF

Download Appendix 

Keywords: Global value chains, CO2 emissions, Decoupling, China, Structural decomposition analysis

DOI: 10.5547/01956574.42.2.hwan

References: Reference information is available for this article. Join IAEE, log in, or purchase the article to view reference data.

Published in Volume 42, Number 2 of the bi-monthly journal of the IAEE's Energy Economics Education Foundation.

 

© 2024 International Association for Energy Economics | Privacy Policy | Return Policy