TY - JOUR
T1 - The environmental consequences of fossil fuels in China
T2 - National and regional perspectives
AU - Xu, Bingjie
AU - Zhong, Ruoyu
AU - Hochman, Gal
AU - Dong, Kangyin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is financially supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 18VDL017). The authors especially appreciate the editors and anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments, which improve our work a lot. Certainly, all remaining errors are our own.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Control of the increasing fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the associated environmental consequences are important for sustainable development in China. Nevertheless, very few studies have investigated the environmental consequences of China's fossil fuels at both the national and regional levels. For this purpose, this study explores the dynamic relationships among CO2 emissions, economic growth, and consumption of various fossil fuels (i.e., coal, petroleum, and natural gas) in China, using the panel dataset of 30 provinces for the period 1997–2015. Considering the significant differences across various regions, the whole sample and different regions in China are analyzed separately. The estimated results, at both the national and regional levels, provide strong evidence in favor of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for CO2 emissions in China. Furthermore, increasing coal and petroleum consumption significantly promotes CO2 emissions. Conversely, natural gas offers a cleaner substitute for other fossil fuels (i.e., coal and petroleum); its substitution effect may be influenced by the share of natural gas in the total energy needs. Finally, the above findings highlight several policy implications for the Chinese government's policymakers to effectively reduce CO2 emissions in China, thereby setting the nation on a sustainable development path.
AB - Control of the increasing fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the associated environmental consequences are important for sustainable development in China. Nevertheless, very few studies have investigated the environmental consequences of China's fossil fuels at both the national and regional levels. For this purpose, this study explores the dynamic relationships among CO2 emissions, economic growth, and consumption of various fossil fuels (i.e., coal, petroleum, and natural gas) in China, using the panel dataset of 30 provinces for the period 1997–2015. Considering the significant differences across various regions, the whole sample and different regions in China are analyzed separately. The estimated results, at both the national and regional levels, provide strong evidence in favor of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for CO2 emissions in China. Furthermore, increasing coal and petroleum consumption significantly promotes CO2 emissions. Conversely, natural gas offers a cleaner substitute for other fossil fuels (i.e., coal and petroleum); its substitution effect may be influenced by the share of natural gas in the total energy needs. Finally, the above findings highlight several policy implications for the Chinese government's policymakers to effectively reduce CO2 emissions in China, thereby setting the nation on a sustainable development path.
KW - CO emissions
KW - China
KW - environmental Kuznets curve
KW - fossil fuels
KW - regional analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062501821&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85062501821&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/sd.1943
DO - 10.1002/sd.1943
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85062501821
SN - 0968-0802
VL - 27
SP - 826
EP - 837
JO - Sustainable Development
JF - Sustainable Development
IS - 5
ER -