Research on Evolution in the Center of Gravity and a Contribution Decomposition of Energy–Related CO₂ Emissions at the Provincial Level in China

ABSTRACT

First, a center of gravity model is used to explore the spatiotemporal evolution of CO₂ emissions. Then, the contribution decomposition method is used to study the contribution of provincial regions to gravity movement. The movement in the center of gravity of CO₂ emissions can be divided into roughly two stages: the first stage, 1995–2006, and the second stage, 2006–2015. In the first stage, the center of gravity moved to southwest mainly because of promotion of the northeastern region; in the second stage, the center of gravity moved to the northwest mainly because of the pull of the northwestern region.

KEY WORDS:

• China
• CO₂ emissions
• contribution decomposition
• evolution in the center of gravity

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C19

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions and corrections on the earlier draft of our article, which improved the content.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the “Double-First Class” Initiative Key Program at the China University of Mining and Technology (No. 2018WHCC07).