Resources Science ›› 2019, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 897-907.doi: 10.18402/resci.2019.05.07

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal distribution and provincial contribution decomposition of carbon emissions for the construction industry in China

Jianshuang FAN(), Lin ZHOU   

  1. School of Management, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China
  • Received:2018-04-17 Revised:2018-06-24 Online:2019-05-25 Published:2019-05-25

Abstract:

As an important pillar industry in the rapid urbanization process of China, the construction industry has been facing the problems of high energy consumption and high emissions, and reducing carbon emissions in the construction industry is of great significance for China to achieve its goal of energy conservation. Based on the accounting of construction carbon emissions of 30 provinces in China’s mainland, this article describes and analyzes their spatiotemporal characteristics using the spatial autocorrelation and kernel density function, and the multiplicative logarithmic mean Divisa index (M-LMDI) method to decompose the contribution of energy consumption of construction industry and other related variables for 30 provinces of China’s mainland to national carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) Construction carbon emissions in China showed an upward trend, with positive spatial correlation across the country and spatial agglomeration. Centers of construction carbon emissions gradually moved to the central and southern regions, and the spatial agglomeration effect became increasingly more clear. (2) There were significant differences in construction carbon emissions in the 30 provinces, the gap between regions has continued to expand, and polarization has aggravated; (3) In 1997—2015, construction carbon emissions increased by 115% in the 30 provinces, and the development level of the construction industry and the population employed in the industry were the major contributors to the increase in construction carbon emissions, which led to an increase in construction carbon emissions by 106.52% and 85.43% respectively. On the contrary, the intensity of energy consumption in the construction industry has an constraining effect on construction carbon emissions, reducing carbon emissions by 77.33%; (4) The top two provinces that made the largest contribution to the decline in construction carbon emissions were Heilongjiang and Hainan Provinces, and the bottom two provinces that made the largest contribution to the increase of construction carbon emissions were Shandong and Zhejiang Provinces.

Key words: construction, carbon emissions, spatial autocorrelation, kernel density function, factor decomposition, provincial contribution, China