Carbon Footprint Measurement And Influencing Factors Of China’s Electric Power Industry

The greenhouse effect is becoming more and more intense,which leads to the deterioration of climate and ecological environment,and poses a huge threat to human survival and development.Electric power industry is not only the largest energy consumption industry in China,but also the largest CO2 emission industry.However,China’s coal based power supply structure is bound to have a much higher carbon emission intensity than the average level of the world’s developed countries,and China’s thermal power unit equipment fails to meet the requirements of energy conservation and emission reduction in terms of efficiency and technology,which all lead to the difficulty of reducing the carbon emission intensity of China’s power industry.Therefore,in the context of global advocacy of environmental protection,energy conservation and emission reduction,it is of great significance to study the carbon emission characteristics and influencing factors of China’s power industry to ensure the low-carbon sustainable development of China’s power industry.First of all,based on the IPCC fuel calculation method,this paper calculates the direct carbon footprint of China’s power industry in 1995-2017,and uses the input-output analysis to calculate the indirect carbon footprint of China’s power industry in 1997,2002,2007,2012 and 2017.The results show that from 1995 to2017,the direct carbon emissions of the power industry showed a fluctuating trend of overall growth.From 1994 to 2007,the process of industrialization and urbanization as well as the growth of electricity demand of urban and rural residents drove the growth of electricity demand,which directly led to the growth of direct carbon dioxide emissions,but the growth rate was slow.From 2008 to 2013,the growth trend of direct carbon emissions of the power industry was obvious.After 2013,the direct carbon emissions of the power industry in China slowed down,And later,the growth gradually slowed down.From 1997 to 2017,the indirect carbon footprint of China’s power industry also showed an increasing trend,with a large growth rate.Among them,heavy industry,metal and non-metal mining and processing industry,other service industries and postal transportation industry contributed more indirect carbon emissions.From the perspective of total amount,the carbon footprint of electric power industry shows an increasing trend;from the perspective of emission structure,direct carbon footprint occupies the main position,but the adjustment of industrial structure and the improvement of technology level make the proportion of indirect carbon footprint gradually increase.Secondly,based on the stationary test,VAR model stability test and Johansen test,this paper establishes a vector autoregressive model to study the measurement relationship between carbon emissions and power consumption,industrialization,urbanization,per capita GDP and population level in power industry.The results show that these five factors are the Granger cause of carbon emissions.Among them,GDP per capita in the short term has caused a decline in carbon emissions,but in the long term,it still promotes carbon emissions.The level of urbanization has a long-term positive contribution to carbon emissions,the level of electricity consumption plays a role in short-term reverse regulation of carbon emissions,and the level of industrialization has a positive correlation with carbon emissions.Population level can have different effects on carbon emissions in different periods,which is generally positive.Finally,based on the empirical research,this paper puts forward policy recommendations for carbon emission reduction and sustainable development of the power industry.