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Carbon intensity changes in the Asian Dragons. Lessons for climate policy design

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  • Rodríguez, Miguel
  • Pena-Boquete, Yolanda

Abstract

There is a growing political interest in carbon intensity targets because they are the basis for climate pledges from relevant developing countries such as China. They may be also the basis for policy designs in developed countries like EU members. This paper develops a comprehensive econometric study on the main drivers of national emissions intensity in emerging countries in East Asia. This regional focus responds to their pivotal position in global economic growth and remarkable trends in carbon emissions intensity. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the nature of economic growth has a major effect on carbon intensity trends that deserves some attention. Accordingly, the novelty of this paper is to examine the contribution of “intensive” and “extensive” GDP growth for carbon intensity abatements. Labour productivity is revealed to be the main factor responsible for major carbon intensity reductions by Asian Dragons. Whereas household energy per capita and industrial energy per worker contributed in the opposite direction. Consequently, intensity targets may become “meaningless” for real climate action contributions if they do not take into account labour productivity trends.

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  • Rodríguez, Miguel & Pena-Boquete, Yolanda, 2017. "Carbon intensity changes in the Asian Dragons. Lessons for climate policy design," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 17-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:66:y:2017:i:c:p:17-26
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2017.05.028
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    Cited by:

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    3. Yu Sang Chang & Dosoung Choi & Hann Earl Kim, 2017. "Dynamic Trends of Carbon Intensities among 127 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-21, December.
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    6. Hongli Zhang & Lei Shen & Shuai Zhong & Ayman Elshkaki, 2020. "Economic Structure Transformation and Low-Carbon Development in Energy-Rich Cities: The Case of the Contiguous Area of Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-14, March.
    7. Wang, Zhenguo & Su, Bin & Xie, Rui & Long, Haiyu, 2020. "China’s aggregate embodied CO2 emission intensity from 2007 to 2012: A multi-region multiplicative structural decomposition analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    8. Cheng, Shulei & Wu, Yinyin & Chen, Hua & Chen, Jiandong & Song, Malin & Hou, Wenxuan, 2019. "Determinants of changes in electricity generation intensity among different power sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 389-408.
    9. Rodríguez, M. & Teotónio, C. & Roebeling, P. & Fortes, P., 2023. "Targeting energy savings? Better on primary than final energy and less on intensity metrics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. María A. Quintás & Ana I. Martínez-Senra & Antonio Sartal, 2018. "The Role of SMEs’ Green Business Models in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy: Differences in Their Design and Degree of Adoption Stemming from Business Size," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, June.
    11. Sharma, Rajesh & Sinha, Avik & Kautish, Pradeep, 2020. "Examining the impacts of economic and demographic aspects on the ecological footprint in South and Southeast Asian countries," MPRA Paper 104245, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Carbon emissions intensity; Energy intensity; climate change; Intensive GDP growth; Labour productivity; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O44 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Environment and Growth
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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