Abstract
The electric power sector is one of the primary sources of CO2 emissions. Analyzing the influential factors that result in CO2 emissions from the power sector would provide valuable information to reduce the world’s CO2 emissions. Herein, we applied the Divisia decomposition method to analyze the influential factors for CO2 emissions from the power sector from 11 countries, which account for 67% of the world’s emissions from 1990 to 2013. We decompose the influential factors for CO2 emissions into seven areas: the emission coefficient, energy intensity, the share of electricity generation, the share of thermal power generation, electricity intensity, economic activity, and population. The decomposition analysis results show that economic activity, population, and the emission coefficient have positive roles in increasing CO2 emissions, and their contribution rates are 119, 23.9, and 0.5%, respectively. Energy intensity, electricity intensity, the share of electricity generation, and the share of thermal power generation curb CO2 emissions and their contribution rates are 17.2, 15.7, 7.7, and 2.8%, respectively. Through decomposition analysis for each country, economic activity and population are the major factors responsible for increasing CO2 emissions from the power sector. However, the other factors from developed countries can offset the growth in CO2 emissions due to economic activities.
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Funding
This work was supported by the China’s National Key R&D Program (2016YFA0602801), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71673026, 71273027, 71642004, 71521002, and 71322306), Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation, Sustainable Development Research Institute for Economy and Society of Beijing, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China. The views expressed in this paper are solely authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the supporting agencies and authors’ affiliations.
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Li, X., Liao, H., Du, YF. et al. Carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity sector in major countries: a decomposition analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 6814–6825 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-1013-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-1013-z