School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Apr 20;714:136841. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136841. Epub 2020 Jan 22.
It is crucial to decouple economic growth from environmental pollution in China. This study aims to evaluate China's decoupling level between PM emissions and economic growth from a regional investment perspective. Using the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces for the period of 1998-2016, this study combines decomposition analysis with decoupling analysis to identify the roles of conventional factors and three novel investment factors in the mitigation and decoupling of PM emissions in China and its four sub-regions. The results show that China's PM emissions were weakly decoupled to economic growth during the period of 1998-2016, as well as in China's four sub-regions. At the national level, investment scale played the dominant role while investment structure had a marginal effect in mitigating the decoupling level. In contrast, emission intensity was the largest driver in promoting the decoupling effect. At the regional level, emission intensity and investment efficiency accelerated the regional decoupling level, but the coupling effect from investment scale in the western region far exceeded those in other three sub-regions. At the provincial level, the investment structure of Inner Mongolia and investment scales of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia had the greatest impacts on PM emission growth. Finally, several policy recommendations are raised for China to mitigate its PM emissions.
在中国，使经济增长与环境污染脱钩至关重要。本研究旨在从区域投资角度评估中国 PM 排放与经济增长之间的脱钩水平。本研究利用中国 1998-2016 年 30 个省份的面板数据，结合分解分析和脱钩分析，确定常规因素和三种新型投资因素在中国及其四大区域对 PM 排放减排和脱钩的作用。结果表明，1998-2016 年期间以及中国四大区域，中国 PM 排放与经济增长呈弱脱钩关系。在全国层面上，投资规模在缓解脱钩水平方面发挥主导作用，而投资结构则具有边际效应。相比之下，排放强度是促进脱钩效应的最大驱动力。在区域层面上，排放强度和投资效率加速了区域脱钩水平，但西部地区投资规模的耦合效应远远超过其他三个区域。在省级层面上，内蒙古的投资结构和新疆、内蒙古的投资规模对 PM 排放增长的影响最大。最后，针对中国的 PM 减排提出了一些政策建议。
