China's provincial agricultural carbon emissions measurement and low carbonization level evaluation: Based on the application of derivative indicators and TOPSIS

Abstract

The calculation of agricultural carbon emissions and the evaluation of low carbonization levels are important bases for realizing green development of agriculture and formulating carbon emission reduction plans. This article firstly calculated the agricultural carbon emissions of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2006 to 2016. Based on the calculation results, the agricultural carbon emission derivative indicators were constructed from three aspects: agricultural land, livestock farming and agricultural energy. The low carbonization levels of agriculture in the 30 regions were evaluated by the TOPSIS method with dynamic natural weights. The results showed that China's total agricultural carbon emissions showed a V-shaped tendency, which was 910.96 million tons in 2006 and dropped to 835.21 million tons in 2008, and steadily increased to 921.92 million tons in 2016 afterwards.Agricultural non-energy carbon emissions accounted for more than 84% of the total agricultural carbon emissions, and soil management was the largest source of agricultural nonenergy carbon emissions. China's inter-provincial agricultural carbon emission derivatives were heterogeneous, and the overall low carbonization level of agriculture was not high. These provided references for agricultural and environmental departments to carry out low-carbon agriculture evaluation.