Empirical Study On The Relationship Between Carbon Emissions From Energy Consumption And Economic Growth In The Yangtze River Delta Region

Global warming is one of the major environmental issues faced by human beings.The emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from energy consumption is an important cause of global warming.China is the world's largest carbon emitter.The problem of carbon emissions has seriously affected the healthy development of China's economy and society.In recent years,the spirit of the central and national documents has continuously emphasized and reiterated the importance and urgency of green,lowcarbon development.General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stated the green development concept of "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" and "Treat the ecological environment just like life".Therefore,reducing carbon emissions,curbing global warming,and adhering to the concept of green,low-carbon development should truly form consensus in all regions and make positive efforts.The Yangtze River Delta region,which is China's largest economic zone,mainly includes three provincial administrative regions: Shanghai,Jiangsu,and Zhejiang.The region only accounts for 1/50 of China's land area,but its economic output accounts for about 1/4 of the country's total,and carbon emissions account for more than 1/10 of the country's total.It is the focus and key area of carbon emission reduction and the economic and environmental transformation and upgrading in China.Therefore,it is of great significance to identify the impact factors of carbon emissions from energy consumption in the Yangtze River Delta and to explore the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth,which will ameliorate current carbon emission status of the region and lead the development of the nation's carbon emission reduction.This paper analyzes the characteristics of carbon emissions from energy consumption in the Yangtze River Delta region from the regional,provincial and urban scales,and uses ArcGIS software to characterize the spatial distribution of carbon emissions at the city level.The long-term fitting relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth is analyzed by using the simple environment Kuznets curve and Stochastic Impact by Regression Model.Decoupling elasticity and impact factors are utilized to analyze the short-term interaction between carbon emissions and economic growth,and specifically applies the Evaluation Model of Impact Factor to assess the status and role of impact factors in the decoupling process of urban carbon emissions,also using analysis software such as Arc GIS,analyzes the spatial-temporal evolution of the decoupling relationship at the city level.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)From 2001 to 2015,the carbon emissions from energy consumption in the Yangtze River Delta region were increasing continuously,the growth rate fluctuated and the carbon emission intensity decreased continuously.Jiangsu was a province with larger amount and faster growth rate of carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region.The number of cities with high and medium-level carbon emissions was increasing,and the overall carbon emission pattern was gradually deteriorating.The pattern was characterized by Shanghai as an agglomeration area of carbon emissions,with high carbon emissions in the central part and radiating to the both wings,the concentration zone of carbon emissions shifting to the eastern part of the Yangtze River Delta region.(2)From the perspective of long-term fitting relationship,the simple environmental Kuznets curve in the Yangtze River Delta region presents an inverted “N” type,with an inverted “U” shape in stage.The theoretical inflection point appeared between 2013 and 2014 and the corresponding per capita GDP was 53793.07 yuan.Further fitting to the environmental Kuznets curve,it is found that it is not an inverted “U” shape during the observation period,and the inflection point has not appeared in the sample study interval.In the study of the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth under simultaneous action of other different impact factors,it is found that carbon emissions from energy consumption in the Yangtze River Delta region are affected by various factors such as population,per capita GDP,foreign direct investment,and technological advance.Per capita GDP is one of the significant factors affecting carbon emissions,with a growth rate of 1.00%,the amount of carbon emissions increasing by 0.09% approximately.Unlike existing studies,the measurement of technological advance indicator in this article has been incorporated into both technical input and technical output,and the result shows that the reduction in carbon emissions realized by overall level of technological advance is smaller than the increase it brings.(3)From the perspective of short-term interaction,the decoupling states at the regional level in the Yangtze River Delta have gradually improved from negative decoupling to weak decoupling and strong decoupling.The decoupling states of carbon emission factor are manifested in an evolution pattern of species diversity,but the evolution trend is well,while the evolution pattern about the decoupling states of energy consumption factor,which has a more significant impact on decoupling state at the regional level,is characterized by diversified fluctuation,but the evolution trend is well.There are significant differences in the decoupling state at the city level,but they gradually weaken,and the decoupling states of most cities improve year by year.The number of cities with strong and weak decoupling state has been increasing year by year,and the spatial distribution of these cities shows a trend of agglomeration with shifting to the eastern part.The decoupling states of the two decoupling impact factors are both manifested in obvious evolution patterns of species diversity,distribution differentiation but well-evolved trend.The impact of carbon emission factor generally shows a trend of change from negative to positive,while the impact of energy consumption factor,which has a more significant impact on decoupling state at the city level,is positive and relatively stable in most cities.