Decomposition analysis of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the iron and steel industry in China

Abstract

This work aims to identify the main factors influencing the energy-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the iron and steel industry in China during the period of 1995–2007. The logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) technique was applied with period-wise analysis and time-series analysis. Changes in energy-related CO₂ emissions were decomposed into four factors: emission factor effect, energy structure effect, energy consumption effect, and the steel production effect. The results show that steel production is the major factor responsible for the rise in CO₂ emissions during the sampling period; on the other hand the energy consumption is the largest contributor to the decrease in CO₂ emissions. To a lesser extent, the emission factor and energy structure effects have both negative and positive contributions to CO₂ emissions, respectively. Policy implications are provided regarding the reduction of CO₂ emissions from the iron and steel industry in China, such as controlling the overgrowth of steel production, improving energy-saving technologies, and introducing low-carbon energy sources into the iron and steel industry.

Keywords

carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions / decomposition analysis / logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) technique / time-series analysis

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (No. N090602007).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg