China’s power industry’s carbon emission intensity in the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality: measurement and regional difference

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-08-2022-0119
• Published date: 09 December 2022
• Date: 09 December 2022
• Pages: 264-281
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change
• Author: Pinjie Xie,Baolin Sun,Li Liu,Yuwen Xie,Fan Yang,Rong Zhang

China’s power industry’s carbon

emission intensity in the context

of carbon peaking and carbon

neutrality: measurement and

regional difference

Pinjie Xie and Baolin Sun

College of Economics and Management, Shanghai University of Electric Power,

Shanghai, China

Li Liu

Business School, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, China

Yuwen Xie

Department of Pitou Bureau,

Zhanjiang Power Supply Bureau of Guangdong Power Grid Co., Ltd.,

Guangdong, China

Fan Yang

Department of Construction Management,

Zhejiang Electric Transmission and Transformation Engineering Co., Ltd.,

Zhejiang, China, and

Rong Zhang

China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, Beijing, China

Abstract

Purpose –To cope with the severe situationof the global climate, China proposed the “30 60”dual-carbon

strategic goal. Based on this background, the purpose of this paper is to investigate scientifically and

reasonably the interprovincial pattern of China’s power carbon emission intensity and further explore the

causes of differenceson this basis.

Design/methodology/approach –Considering the principle of “shared but differentiated responsibilities,”

this study measures the carbon emissions within the power industry from 1997 to 2019 scientifically, via the

panel data of 30 provinces in China. The power carbon emission intensity is chosen as the indicator. Using the

Dagum Gini coefficientt o explore regional differences and their causes.

© Pinjie Xie, Baolin Sun, Li Liu, Yuwen Xie, Fan Yang and Rong Zhang. Published by Emerald

Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for

both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication

and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/

legalcode

This paper is supported by the Shanghai Social Science Planning General Project (Grant No.

2018BGL019) and the Shanghai Soft Science Research Project: Science and Technology Innovation

Action Plan (Grant No. 22692109700).

IJCCSM

15,2

264

Received26 August 2022

Revised4 October 2022

Accepted2 November 2022

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.15 No. 2, 2023

pp. 264-281

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-08-2022-0119

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1756-8692.htm

Findings –The results of this paper show that, first, China’s carbon emission intensity from the power

industry overall is significantly different. From the perspective of geospat ial distribution, the three

regions have unbalanced characteristics. Second, according to the decomposition results of the Gini

coefficient, the overall difference in power carbon emission intensity is generally expanding. The

geospatial and economic development levels are examined separately. The gaps between the eastern

and economically developed regions are the smallest, and the regional differences are the source of the

overall disparity.

Research limitations/implications –Further exploring the causes of differences on this basis is

crucial for relevant departments to formulate differentiated energy conservation and emission reduction

policies. This studyprovides direction for analyzing the green and lowcarbon development of China’s power

industry.

Practical implications –As an economic indicator of green and low-carbondevelopment, CO

2

intensity

of power industry can directly reflectthe dependence of economic growth on the high emission of electricity

and energy. and furtherexploring the causes of differences on this basisis crucial for relevant departments to

formulatedifferentiated energy conservation andemission reduction policies.

Social implications –For a long time, with the rapid economic development,resulting in the unresolved

contradiction between low energy efficiency and high carbon emissions. To this end, scientifically and

reasonably investigatingthe interprovincial pattern of China’s power carbon emission intensity, and further

exploringthe causes of differences on this basis, is crucialfor relevant departments to formulatedifferentiated

energy conservationand emission reduction policies.

Originality/value –Third, consideringthe influence of spatial factors on the convergence of power carbon

emission intensity, a variety of different spatial weight matrices are selected. Based on the

b

-convergence

theory from both absolute and conditional perspectives, we dig deeper into the spatial convergence of

electricitycarbon emission intensity across the country and the three regions.

Keywords Power industry, CO

2

intensity, Dagum Gini coefficient, Regional difference

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

The attention of countries around the world on climate change has risen to the level of

economic and political games, and low-carbongreen development has gradually become the

main theme of addressing climate issues. As the world’s largest energy consumer and

carbon emitter, China’stotal CO

2

emissions in 2020 reached 9.894 billiontons, accounting for

33% of the global total (IEA, 2020).Such a high amount of carbon emissions has caused my

country to face enormous pressure to reduce emissions. For a long time, the rapid

development of my country’s economy has led to the unresolved contradiction between low

energy efficiency and high carbon emissions. Therefore, maintaining stable economic

development in the shortterm still requires a large supply of fossil energy, which in turn will

put pressure on emission reductions (Chen et al., 2018). To this end, in 2020, the Chinese

Government proposed the strategicgoal of achieving “carbon peaking”in 2030 and “carbon

neutrality”in 2060.

As the basic pillar industry of the national economy, the powerindustry is also the main

field of carbon emissions, and its productionactivities are one of the main sources of carbon

emissions (Wang et al.,2013). In 2020, China’s electricity carbon emissions will account for

about 38% of my country’s total carbon emissions. With the rapid progressof urbanization

and industrialization, the power industry will still provide a source of power for social and

economic development in the future (Xie et al., 2021).Because of the constraints of resource

endowment and power generation structure, coal consumption will still be themain power

generation. It willinevitably have a serious impact on the environment,making it difficult to

meet the needs of low-carbon green development. To this end, for carbon emission control,

the central government plays an importantrole in it (Pan et al., 2022). Under the background

Carbon

emission

intensity

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