Provincial differences on CO2 emissions in China’s power industry: A quantile regression approach

Abstract

As the world’s largest energy consumer today, China is causing increasing pressure on the global environment, and the power industry might bear the primary responsibility for producing nearly 50% of China’s CO2 emissions. Investigating the main drivers of CO2 emissions in China’s power industry is of vital importance for developing effective environmental policies. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China, the quantile regression approach was applied in the present paper in order to find out which provinces should pay more attention to mitigating CO2 emissions in the power industry. Results show that the upper 90th quantile provinces (Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong) have to spend more efforts on carbon reduction, and the influences of economic growth, industrialization level and energy efficiency in these provinces are more significant than in others. These findings are extremely helpful for related departments in the power industry to develop appropriate policies pertaining to energy savings and emissions reduction.