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Socioeconomic driving factors of PM2.5 emission in Jing-Jin-Ji region, China: a generalized Divisia index approach

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Abstract

Air quality in China is increasingly improving, but the situation facing the atmosphere environment is still dire. Regional atmospheric environmental problems characterized by PM2.5 pollutants are becoming increasingly prominent, especially in the Jing-Jin-Ji (3J) region. This study employs the generalized Divisia index approach to decompose the factors that influence the changes of PM2.5 emission in the 3J region. It is divided into 8 factors: scale effect of regional economy, scale effect of regional energy consumption, scale effect of investment in treatment of environment pollution (ITEP), technology effect of energy efficient utilization, technology effect of clean energy utilization technology, the intensity effect of regional green economic development, the intensity effect of investment in treatment of regional PM2.5 emission, and the intensity effect of regional environmental regulation. To identify the vital driving force of the change of PM2.5 emission, the contribution of each driving factor of PM2.5 emission variation is analyzed. The results show that the factors affecting the change of PM2.5 emission are almost the same, but the contribution of each factor is apparently different in the 3J region. The level of regional economic development and the scale of energy consumption promoted the increase of PM2.5 emission in the region. The growth of PM2.5 emission can be effectively controlled by green economic development intensity, energy clean utilization technology, environmental regulation intensity, and the intensity of investment in treatment of PM2.5 emission. Energy efficiency has a slight effect on the changes of PM2.5 emission. ITEP has a negative effect on the changes of PM2.5 emission. In the future, the 3J region needs to optimize the structure of ITEP further and implement the refinement and precision of pollution treatment. Moreover, it also needs to promote the development of energy clean and efficient use of technological innovation to drive PM2.5 emission reduction.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive suggestions and comments on an earlier version of the paper.

Funding

This research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71801133, 71771126, and 7177116), Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (No. 2017SJB0336, and 2020SJZDA051), and funded by Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu (17GLB013) and Government Audit Research Foundation of Nanjing Audit University (GAS171014). This research was also supported by Suzhou Key Laboratory for Big Data and Information Service (SZS201813).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Auditing and Evaluation, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing, 211815, China

    Yu Yu

  2. Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China

    Xia Zhou

  3. School of Management, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Weiwei Zhu

  4. Business School, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215009, China

    Qinfen Shi

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  1. Yu Yu
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  2. Xia Zhou
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  3. Weiwei Zhu
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  4. Qinfen Shi
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Contributions

Yu Yu: writing - original draft, conceptualization, methodology, investigation. Xia Zhou: data curation, software, writing - review and editing. Weiwei Zhu: conceptualization, investigation. Qinfen Shi: supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Weiwei Zhu or Qinfen Shi.

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Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 5
figure 5

Changes in relative factors of the change of PM2.5 emission in the 3J region (based on PM2.5 emission in 2000)

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Table 5 Contributions of factors of the change rate of PM2.5 emission from 2003 to 2017 in Beijing
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Table 6 Contributions of influencing factors of PM2.5 emission change from 2003 to 2017 in Beijing
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Table 7 Contributions of influencing factors of PM2.5 emission change rate from 2003 to 2017 in Tianjin
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Table 8 Contributions of influencing factors of PM2.5 emission change from 2003 to 2017 in Tianjin
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Table 9 Contributions of influencing factors of PM2.5 emission change rate from 2003 to 2017 in Hebei
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Table 10 Contributions of influencing factors of PM2.5 emission change from 2003 to 2017 in Hebei
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Table 11 Contribution rates of various influencing factors on PM2.5 emission change in the 3J at different stages from 2003 to 2017
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Yu, Y., Zhou, X., Zhu, W. et al. Socioeconomic driving factors of PM2.5 emission in Jing-Jin-Ji region, China: a generalized Divisia index approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 15995–16013 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11698-9

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