A decomposition analysis of embodied energy consumption in China's construction industry

Abstract

With the fast-paced urbanization process, there will be a rapid development of China's construction industry. However, it could also drive for considerable energy consumption, resulting in immense pressure on the environment. Based on non-competitive (import) input-output tables, we employed the SRIO (Single Region Input-Output) model to analyze energy use embodied in China's construction industry from 1995 to 2009 and made projections for 2020. Our results show that about 4.84 billion tons of coal equivalent energy would be consumed by China's construction industry in 2020. It implies that urbanization not only promotes the flow of embodied energy, but also provides development opportunities for a green and energy-saving construction industry.