Research On The Relationship Between Development Of China’s High Energy-consuming Industries And Environmental Pollution

In today’s world, such issues as energy development and relationship betweenenergy and environment are not only the common concern of the whole world, butalso the key concerns of China in its social and economic development. As a rapidlydeveloping country, China continues to expand the scale of its current economy,leading to energy consumption growing year by year and causing environmentalproblems which attract attentions of scholars both at home and abroad. With theserious environmental deterioration coming along the rapid economic development,people understand that the current high-energy-consumption, high-pollution andhigh-speed development model is not sustainable, and there should be a conscioustransformation of economic development mode. Therefore, researches on therelationship between the development of China’s high-energy consuming industriesand environmental pollution are of necessity and urgency.On the basis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis, this paper focusedon the research of the relationship between development of China’shigh-energy-consuming industries and the level of environmental pollution. Empiricalanalysis of30inter-provincial Panel data from2000to2010is made based on theresearch model.Generally speaking, innovations of this paper are as follows:First, After proving the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis inChina, this paper uses sulfur dioxide emissions as the proxy variable forenvironmental pollution level. On this basis, this paper analyzes the relationshipbetween high energy-consuming industries and environmental pollution, focusing onthe the relationship between high energy-consuming industries and environmentalpollution level from the perspective of high energy-consuming industry.Second, based on LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index), this paper maks afactor decomposition analysis on the sulfur dioxide emissions brought about by thedevelopment of China’s high energy-consuming industries.It analyzed nine factorsincluding industry aggregation, energy structure, firm size, R&D intensity, capitalintensity, population density, environmental regulation, trade openness. Whether thedecomposition result of LMDI changes from product to sum or from sum to product,all the results are in consistency and can be transformed.Third, After verifying the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in China, this paper finds that the curve representing the relationship between sulfurdioxide emissions and per capita income shows a linear cubic model, which means thecurve is not a complete inverted "U" shape, but a positive "U" shape followed by aninverted "U" shape. Besides, based on the comparison of sulfur dioxide emissionsby high energy-consuming industries in different provinces, this paper finds thatsulfur dioxide emission trends of eastern and western regions show a significantdifference, which demonstrates the industrial upgrading China’s economy isundergoing now.