Factors influencing CO₂ emissions in China based on grey relational analysis

ABSTRACT

The increase of greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO₂ emissions, have caused the global temperature to rise. As a developing country, China has become the largest CO₂ emitter in the world. It is very important and urgent to cut the CO₂ emissions down. In this article, the driving forces that influenced China’s CO₂ emissions from 1995 to 2010 based on grey relational analysis is investigated. It is found that GDP per capita (G), population (P), coal consumption (C), oil consumption (O), natural gas consumption (N), industrial structure (IS), and urbanization (U) play crucial roles in the increase of CO₂ emissions, though they have different impacts on CO₂ emissions. The sequence of the size of the factors’ influence on China’s CO₂ emissions is C > G > O > N > U > P > IS. Some effective recommendations for improving energy efficiency and reducing the CO₂ emissions intensity are proposed.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• CO₂ emissions
• energy saving
• grey relational analysis
• influence factors