Research On The Measurement,emission Reduction Pathways,and Compensation Mechanism For China’s Tourism

China’s tourism industry has simultaneously resulted in considerable energy consumption and carbon emissions and is in urgent need of low-carbon transformation to respond positively to China’s emission reduction commitments.Therefore,effectively reducing carbon emissions while promoting the stable development of tourism has become an important direction for the high-quality development of China’s tourism industry.Technological progress is an important driving force for green economic development,and innovation is the fundamental source of technological progress.Therefore,relying on innovation to drive economic development is an effective means to resolve the contradiction between economic development and environmental protection.Therefore,analyzing the emission reduction pathways and compensation mechanism of China’s tourism industry from the perspective of green innovation efficiency is necessary to promote the low-carbon construction of China’s tourism industry from the perspective of technological innovation.Therefore,this study measured tourism-associated carbon emissions in China’s provinces and further analyzed their decoupling characteristics to understand the development status and emission reduction pressure on tourism-associated carbon emissions in China’s provinces.Additionally,the long-term evolution trend of green innovation efficiency in the tourism sector in all provinces of China were measured and analyzed to prepare for the analysis of carbon emission reduction pathways and compensation mechanism for China’s tourism industry from the perspective of green innovation efficiency in the tourism sector.Subsequently,based on the analysis of the obstacles posed by tourism-associated carbon emissions to green innovation efficiency in the tourism sectors of China’s provinces,this study analyzed the promotion mechanism for green innovation efficiency to construct emission reduction pathways for tourism-associated carbon emissions in each province from the perspective of technological innovation.Finally,the concept of carbon absorption was introduced,and on the basis of using green innovation efficiency to modify tourism-associated carbon emissions,the carbon compensation cost and compensation order of tourism among Chinese provinces were quantitatively analyzed to further establish an interprovincial tourism carbon compensation mechanism with efficiency and fairness from the perspective of carbon neutralization.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)The carbon emssion of China’s tourism industry is on the rise,and the pressure of emission reduction is high.The carbon emissions of tourism,transportation,storage,and postal services decreased from the southeast coast to the central and western regions,while the carbon emissions of tourism wholesale,retail,accommodation,and catering industries changed due to the influence of winter heating in northern China.The carbon emission intensity of the tourism industry in the eastern,central,and western regions,as well as the entire country decreased considerably,and the technological level of the tourism industry improved.In comparison,the energy consumption structure of the tourism wholesale,retail,accommodation,and catering industry was found to be relatively clean.Overall,the decoupling state of national and provincial tourism carbon emissions is weak,and the per capita decoupling state is better than the decoupling state.(2)There is a gap in the tourism green innovation efficiency in all provinces of China.The average tourism green innovation efficiency in the eastern region is the highest,followed by the western and central regions.Tourism green research and development(R&D)efficiency is low,thereby dragging down the industry green innovation efficiency.Thirty percent of the provinces belong to the "double low" type of low green R&D and low green achievement conversion,43.4%belong to the "single low" type of low green R&D or low green achievement conversion,and 26.7%belong to the "double high" type of high green R&D and high green achievement conversion.The tourism green innovation efficiency in the provinces with low efficiency grade has been improved over a long period of time.The tourism green innovation efficiency in each province has no convergence in the short and long term.(3)From the perspective of internal obstacle degree,the obstacle degree of tourism-associated carbon dioxide emissions increased rapidly during the study period,and the effect of promoting the reduction of tourism-associated carbon emission by improving tourism green innovation efficiency becomes increasingly significant.In terms of external ascension pathways,there are six combination ascension pathways.The tourism green innovation efficiency of Qinghai,Gansu,Ningxia,Shanxi,Xinjiang,Hainan,Heilongjiang,Shanghai,Guangxi,and Anhui shows considerable improvement in one of the combination pathways.Other provinces that do not show significant improvements under a combination pathway need to choose the most suitable combination pathway in accordance with their own situation.(4)The revised carbon emission from tourism gradually decreased from the east to the west,while the revised carbon absorption of tourism gradually decreased from the central and western regions to the east.There is a mismatch between the demand for tourism carbon resources and the supply of tourism carbon resources by the provinces,suggesting the requirement of an established carbon compensation mechanism for tourism.Overall,the flow of tourism carbon offset funds is stable,and the economically developed regions compensate the economically underdeveloped regions.The priority of carbon offsets for tourism in all provinces is small and shows a declining trend.The implementation of inter-provincial carbon offsets for tourism has a negligible impact on the regional economic development,which can be used as an effective means to promote the low-carbon construction of tourism in China.The major work and innovation of this study are embodied in the following four aspects:(1)The Tapio causal chain model was constructed to analyze the decoupling effect of tourism carbon emissions in China.Considering that the decoupling state of tourism carbon emissions changes frequently,this study used Tapio causal chain model to decompose the decoupling elasticity of tourism carbon emissions into emission reduction elasticity and energy saving elasticity to explore the specific reasons for the decoupling of China’s tourism carbon emissions.Therefore,it compensates for the lack of decoupling elastic decomposition of tourism carbon emissions in existing studies.(2)The tourism carbon emission was included in the green innovation process of the tourism industry,and the tourism green innovation efficiency in China was measured from a two-stage perspective.As carbon emissions are the main source of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming,this study used tourism carbon emission as an output index and measured the tourism green innovation efficiency in various provinces in China by stages to analyze the specific causes of the efficiency loss.As most existing studies ignore the impact of tourism carbon emissions on the environment and focus on measuring the green innovation efficiency of tourism from a single-stage perspective,this study aims to address the resulting knowledge gap.(3)Based on the fsQCA model,a variety of combination pathways for improving the tourism green innovation efficiency were constructed.Considering that the improvement of tourism green innovation efficiency is the result of multi-factor interaction,this study adopts fsQCA to construct the multi-interaction and multi-combination improvement pathways for tourism green innovation efficiency of various provinces in China,providing a reference for provinces to realize the carbon emission reduction of tourism industry from the perspective of technological innovation efficiency.As existing studies primarily using multiple regression models to identify the single key factor that promotes tourism green innovation efficiency,this study aims to address the resulting knowledge gap.(4)Based on the tourism theory carbon deficit,an inter-provincial tourism carbon offset cost and priority measurement model was constructed.Considering the differences in economic development,technological progress,and natural resource endowment among different provinces in China,this study used the tourism green innovation efficiency to modify tourism-associated carbon emissions,and comprehensively considered the differences among provinces in the number of tourists,land area,natural resource endowment,and compensation capacity to construct an inter-provincial carbon compensation cost and priority accounting model with both efficiency and fairness.As the majority of existing studies only determine the tourism carbon compensation cost based on the absolute difference between tourism carbon emission and tourism carbon absorption,this study aims to address the resulting knowledge gap.