IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v8y2016i5p468-d69823.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Have Market-oriented Reforms Decoupled China’s CO 2 Emissions from Total Electricity Generation? An Empirical Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Shang

    (School of Economics, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, Hebei, China)

  • Guifen Pei

    (School of Economics, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, Hebei, China)

  • Conor Walsh

    (Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK)

  • Ming Meng

    (Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, Hebei, China)

  • Xiangsong Meng

    (School of Economics, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, Hebei, China
    Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, Hebei, China)

Abstract

Achieving the decoupling of electric CO 2 emissions from total electricity generation is important in ensuring the sustainable socioeconomic development of China. To realize this, China implemented market-oriented reforms to its electric power industry at the beginning of 2003. This study used the Tapio decoupling index, the Laspeyres decomposition algorithm, and decoupling-related data from 1993 to 2012 to evaluate the effect of these reforms. Several conclusions can be drawn based on the empirical analysis. (1) The reforms changed the developmental trend of the decoupling index and facilitated its progress towards strong decoupling. (2) The results forecasted through fitting the curve to the decoupling index indicate that strong decoupling would be realized by 2030. (3) Limiting the manufacturing development and upgrading the generation equipment of the thermal power plants are essential for China to achieve strong decoupling at an early date. (4) China should enhance regulatory pressures and guidance for appropriate investment in thermal power plants to ensure the stable development of the decoupling index. (5) Transactions between multiple participants and electricity price bidding play active roles in the stable development of the decoupling index.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Shang & Guifen Pei & Conor Walsh & Ming Meng & Xiangsong Meng, 2016. "Have Market-oriented Reforms Decoupled China’s CO 2 Emissions from Total Electricity Generation? An Empirical Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:5:p:468-:d:69823
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/5/468/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/5/468/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shiu, Alice & Lam, Pun-Lee, 2004. "Electricity consumption and economic growth in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 47-54, January.
    2. Zhao, Xiaoli & Lyon, Thomas P. & Song, Cui, 2012. "Lurching towards markets for power: China’s electricity policy 1985–2007," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 148-155.
    3. Justin Tevie & Kristine M. Grimsrud & Robert P. Berrens, 2011. "Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis for Biodiversity Risk in the US: A Spatial Econometric Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(11), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Du, Limin & Mao, Jie & Shi, Jinchuan, 2009. "Assessing the impact of regulatory reforms on China's electricity generation industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 712-720, February.
    5. Kyle W. Knight & Juliet B. Schor, 2014. "Economic Growth and Climate Change: A Cross-National Analysis of Territorial and Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions in High-Income Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-10, June.
    6. Cherni, Judith A. & Kentish, Joanna, 2007. "Renewable energy policy and electricity market reforms in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 3616-3629, July.
    7. Kahrl, Fredrich & Williams, James H. & Hu, Junfeng, 2013. "The political economy of electricity dispatch reform in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 361-369.
    8. Yuan, Jiahai & Zhao, Changhong & Yu, Shunkun & Hu, Zhaoguang, 2007. "Electricity consumption and economic growth in China: Cointegration and co-feature analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 1179-1191, November.
    9. John P. Smol, 2012. "Climate Change: A planet in flux," Nature, Nature, vol. 483(7387), pages 12-15, March.
    10. Michael Martin & Lina Danielsson, 2016. "Environmental Implications of Dynamic Policies on Food Consumption and Waste Handling in the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, March.
    11. Sun, J. W., 1998. "Changes in energy consumption and energy intensity: A complete decomposition model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 85-100, February.
    12. Du, Limin & He, Yanan & Yan, Jianye, 2013. "The effects of electricity reforms on productivity and efficiency of China's fossil-fired power plants: An empirical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 804-812.
    13. Wang, Qiang & Chen, Xi, 2012. "China's electricity market-oriented reform: From an absolute to a relative monopoly," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 143-148.
    14. Zhe Wang & Lin Zhao & Guozhu Mao & Ben Wu, 2015. "Factor Decomposition Analysis of Energy-Related CO 2 Emissions in Tianjin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-16, July.
    15. Yajing Gao & Huaxin Cheng & Jing Zhu & Haifeng Liang & Peng Li, 2016. "The Optimal Dispatch of a Power System Containing Virtual Power Plants under Fog and Haze Weather," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, January.
    16. Elisabeth Conrad & Louis F. Cassar, 2014. "Decoupling Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation: Reviewing Progress to Date in the Small Island State of Malta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-22, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dayong Wu & Changwei Yuan & Hongchao Liu, 2018. "The decoupling states of CO2 emissions in the Chinese transport sector from 1994 to 2012: A perspective on fuel types," Energy & Environment, , vol. 29(4), pages 591-612, June.
    2. Xinlin Zhang & Yuan Zhao & Qi Sun & Changjian Wang, 2017. "Decomposition and Attribution Analysis of Industrial Carbon Intensity Changes in Xinjiang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-16, March.
    3. Haijun Zhao & Weichun Ma & Hongjia Dong & Ping Jiang, 2017. "Analysis of Co-Effects on Air Pollutants and CO 2 Emissions Generated by End-of-Pipe Measures of Pollution Control in China’s Coal-Fired Power Plants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Gao, Kang & Yuan, Yijun, 2022. "Does market-oriented reform make the industrial sector “Greener” in China? Fresh evidence from the perspective of capital-labor-energy market distortions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeng, Ming & Yang, Yongqi & Wang, Lihua & Sun, Jinghui, 2016. "The power industry reform in China 2015: Policies, evaluations and solutions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 94-110.
    2. Meng, Ming & Mander, Sarah & Zhao, Xiaoli & Niu, Dongxiao, 2016. "Have market-oriented reforms improved the electricity generation efficiency of China's thermal power industry? An empirical analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 734-741.
    3. Wang, Chen & Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Shanlin, 2017. "A review of residential tiered electricity pricing in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 533-543.
    4. Chen, Zhongfei & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Borges, Maria Rosa, 2015. "A Bayesian stochastic frontier analysis of Chinese fossil-fuel electricity generation companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 136-144.
    5. Ma, Hengyun & Oxley, Les & Gibson, John, 2010. "China's energy economy: A survey of the literature," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 105-132, June.
    6. Cheng, Chuntian & Chen, Fu & Li, Gang & Ristić, Bora & Mirchi, Ali & Qiyu, Tu & Madani, Kaveh, 2018. "Reform and renewables in China: The architecture of Yunnan's hydropower dominated electricity market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 682-693.
    7. Yonglian Chang & Yingjun Huang & Manman Li & Zhengmin Duan, 2021. "Threshold Effect in the Relationship between Environmental Regulations and Haze Pollution: Empirical Evidence from PSTR Estimation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-19, November.
    8. Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Shanlin & Shen, Chao & Ding, Shuai & Sun, Chaoping, 2015. "Energy conservation and emission reduction of China’s electric power industry," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 10-19.
    9. Zeng, Ming & Yang, Yongqi & Fan, Qiannan & Liu, Yingxin & Zou, Zhuojun, 2015. "Coordination between clean energy generation and thermal power generation under the policy of “direct power-purchase for large users” in China," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 10-22.
    10. Zhou, Kaile & Yang, Shanlin, 2015. "Demand side management in China: The context of China’s power industry reform," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 954-965.
    11. Liu, Shuangquan & Yang, Qiang & Cai, Huaxiang & Yan, Minghui & Zhang, Maolin & Wu, Dianning & Xie, Mengfei, 2019. "Market reform of Yunnan electricity in southwestern China: Practice, challenges and implications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Du, Limin & He, Yanan & Yan, Jianye, 2013. "The effects of electricity reforms on productivity and efficiency of China's fossil-fired power plants: An empirical analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 804-812.
    13. Du, Gang & Sun, Chuanwang & Fang, Zhongnan, 2015. "Evaluating the Atkinson index of household energy consumption in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1080-1087.
    14. Ma, Hengyun & Oxley, Les & Gibson, John, 2009. "Gradual reforms and the emergence of energy market in China: Evidence from tests for convergence of energy prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4834-4850, November.
    15. Zhang, Liang & Ruan, Jian & Ding, Jianhua, 2014. "The institutional power shortage in China: Capacity shortage or capacity under-utilisation?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 480-494.
    16. Wu, Cheng-Feng & Wang, Chien-Ming & Chang, Tsangyao & Yuan, Chien-Chung, 2019. "The nexus of electricity and economic growth in major economies: The United States-India-China triangle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    17. Eisenberg, Tom, 2024. "Missing data and the effects of market deregulation: Evidence from Chinese coal power," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    18. Omri, Anis, 2014. "An international literature survey on energy-economic growth nexus: Evidence from country-specific studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 951-959.
    19. Udi Joshua & Festus V. Bekun & Samuel A. Sarkodie, 2020. "New Insight into the Causal Linkage between Economic Expansion, FDI, Coal consumption, Pollutant emissions and Urbanization in South Africa," Working Papers 20/011, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    20. Chen, Hao & Cui, Jian & Song, Feng & Jiang, Zhigao, 2022. "Evaluating the impacts of reforming and integrating China's electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:5:p:468-:d:69823. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.