Decoupling Between Industrial Growth and Carbon Emissions: Evidence from India’s Core Industries

Global warming and climate change demands industries to operate sustainably and minimize their environmental ill-effects. However, in the initial stages of growth, industries do impose a certain level of environmental stress. The present study attempts to analyse the environmental degradation effects emanating from the growth of the Indian core industries. The core industries as recognized by the government of India, have a high contribution towards India’s economic growth. The eight industries are—coal, crude oil, natural gas, cement, fertilizers, electricity, steel and refinery products. At the same time, studies have established that these industries are a few of the most polluting industries across the globe. The study employs Tapio’s Decoupling approach to explore the environmental efficiency of each of the core industries. Additionally, a new Decoupling Score (DS) methodology has been introduced that incorporates the ability to represent the polluting levels of the industries. The study considers the Index of Core Industries to represent the growth level of the core industries and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission to measure the environmental degradation level. Depending on the availability, at least 14 years of data have been considered for each industry from 2005 onwards. The study finds that crude oil and electricity are the most polluting and cleanest core industries respectively. Advanced technologies, efficient management systems, and environment-friendly energy sources are crucial to reduce the environmental degradation levels of these industries.