THE ECOLOGICAL SECURITY PATTERN OF CHINA’S ENERGY CONSUMPTION BASED ON CARBON FOOTPRINT

Abstract

Industrialization and urbanization have improved people’s standard of living, but these two processes have also accelerated consumption of ecological goods and services. China’s increasingly high carbon footprint relative to energy consumption and the decreasing ability of forestlands to absorb CO₂ have become primary causes of ecological degradation while also effecting China’s territorial ecological security. This paper analyzes China’s carbon footprint to determine how the ecological security pattern has been effected by regional energy consumption. China’s per capita carbon footprint has doubled more than twenty times since 1949, while the relationship of ecological deficit to territorial security has not been adequately considered. Regional differences in carbon footprint, due to the uneven distribution of energy resources as well as uneven social and economic development, now threaten China’s territorial ecological security. Finally, this paper suggested that regional energy consumption and natural ecological reserves are the two factors most effecting the ecological security pattern of China’s energy consumption.

Keywords

Energy Consumption / Carbon Footprint / Bio-capacity / Ecosystem Services / Ecological Security

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2016 Higher Education Press