Decoupling Economic Growth from Carbon Emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China: From the Coordinated Regional Development Perspective

Abstract

Decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions is crucial for combating the climate crisis and promoting green development. However, a uniform approach to climate mitigation exacerbates regional disharmony. As a microcosm of China’s regional heterogeneity, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is helpful in exploring regional collaborative climate governance. This paper uses the Thiel index, the Tapio decoupling model, and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition approach to explore the decoupling of economic growth from carbon emissions in YREB from 2005 to 2019. Results indicate that the carbon intensity difference is mainly from the difference within middle-rising provinces (MRP) and western less-developed provinces (WLP). YREB exhibits strong decoupling overall, but it is not sustained. The economic growth effect significantly promotes carbon emissions, which is more prominent in MRP. The energy intensity effect plays a vital role in restraining carbon emissions. The emission factor effect signals an improved energy structure in WLP. Regional coordination is needed to achieve green development; thus, provinces should set differentiated carbon emission reduction targets, and more potent tools are recommended in major carbon emitters.