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Uncovering impact factors of carbon emissions from transportation sector: evidence from China’s Yangtze River Delta Area

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Abstract

Transportation sector contributes a significant proportion to the overall carbon emission. This paper aims at measuring the impact factors of the transportation sector’s carbon emission in China’s Yangtze River Delta Area (YRDA) so that mitigation strategies on promoting low-carbon transportation can be raised. The partial least squares method and an extended STIRPAT (stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology) model were employed for quantifying the contributions of different impact factors that affect transportation carbon emission within the YRDA region for the period of 1995–2014. Results show that population size, GDP, civilian vehicle inventory, energy intensity, passenger transportation, freight turnover, and transport sector output are key factors inducing transportation carbon emission, while energy structure and transportation sector employees mitigate the overall transportation carbon emission. Such results provide valuable policy implications for preparing appropriate mitigation strategies, such as the optimization of energy structure, the development of energy efficient technologies, the improvement of public awareness, and the implementation of intelligent transportation management.

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Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the valuable comments of anonymous referees. We are also grateful to the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71774071, 72088101, 71690241, 71810107001) and the Key Project of Jiangsu Social Science Fund (20ZLA007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Low-carbon Economy and Environmental Regulation, Institute of Industrial Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, Jiangsu, China

    Huaping Sun, Lingxiang Hu & Yong Geng

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Huaping Sun & Yong Geng

  3. China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 800 Dongchuan Road, Minhang, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Yong Geng

  4. Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Yong Geng

  5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Guangchuan Yang

Authors
  1. Huaping Sun
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  2. Lingxiang Hu
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  3. Yong Geng
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  4. Guangchuan Yang
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Correspondence to Huaping Sun or Yong Geng.

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Sun, H., Hu, L., Geng, Y. et al. Uncovering impact factors of carbon emissions from transportation sector: evidence from China’s Yangtze River Delta Area. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 25, 1423–1437 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-020-09934-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-020-09934-1

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