Empirical Analysis Of The Low-Carbon Economy In Shandong Province

Deterioration in the global climate and energy shortages have been a threat to humansurvival and development. Since the British Government put forward the concept of a low-carbon economy in2003, it has attracted worldwide attention. Low-carbon economy is toobtain greater economic benefits through less resource consumption and lessenvironmental pollution. Low-carbon economy is to create higher standards of living andbetter quality of life, while creating more business opportunities and employmentopportunities.China has become the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in2010. China’s carbonemissions have become the focus of attention of domestic and foreign academia andGovernments. Therefore, the development of low-carbon economy is of positivesignificance to achieving sustainable development and mitigation of global climatedeterioration. As a major economic province in eastern China, Shandong’s nationaleconomy has maintained rapid growth in recent years. However, the rapid economicgrowth is the cost of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In2005,Shandong became largest province of the national carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, thetransformation of economic development and the development of low-carbon economybecame opportunities and challenges faced Shandong. Meanwhile, Shandong’s economicstructure and economic development pattern has similarities with the whole country.Therefore, to study the development of low-carbon economy in Shandong Province notonly has practical significance for Shandong, but also is important to understand thedevelopment of low-carbon economy in China. It can provide recommendations for futureprovincial regional low-carbon economic development research. The main content of thisarticle includes the following aspects:Currently, the development of Shandong still relies on extensive economy. Captitalinvestment is the main driving factors of ecomomic growth. Since2000, Shandong’senergy consumption and carbon emissions have shown a substantial growth trend.However, recently, the growth rate has declined, and the energy utilization efficiency is improved obviously.There are complex interrelationships among energy consumption, carbon emissionand economy growth. We analyze the relationship between energy consumption and carbonemissions and economic growth with econometric methods. We find that there is atwo-way influence between energy consumption and economic growth and an inverted "N"type relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth.Structure of Shandong’s industry also has great influence on carbon emissions.Carbon emissions of the secondary industry increase greatly, and carbon emission intensityis far more than the first and third. Carbon emissions of the tertiary industry are also takingon an increasing trend, but the intensity was ignificantly lower than that of the secondindustries.In the carbon impact factors, inhibition of carbon emissions mainly comes from the improvedenergy-using efficiency. The energy structure adjustment has a little influence on carbon emissions.However, the reduction of carbon emissions caused by energy efficiency is much lower than theincrease caused by the economic growth.