The Potential For Economic Growth And Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reduction: Using Input-Output Framework

As people’s living standards continue to ameliorate, people become more and more demanding of the status of eco-environment, and carbon emissions are a key factor affecting the eco-environment. We analyze the carbon emissions intensity and carbon emissions potential of different sectors in China based on the input-output model. The results show that the sector of Production and Supply of Electric Power and Heat Power has the highest embodied carbon emissions intensity because the sector provides the country with necessary electricity and heat power for its economic growth. In addition, this paper determines the key carbon emissions sectors using elasticity method, and the results show that Construction is the most influential carbon emissions sector in the future. By restricting key carbon emissions sectors and encouraging the non-key carbon emissions sectors, we can take into account both economic development and carbon emissions reduction with the multi-objective model. The results show that under the present economic scale of China, carbon emissions can decrease from 11591 million ton to 11011 million ton, with a difference of 580 million ton. This indicates that with the assurance of present economic growth, we can achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions by adjusting the economic structure. Based on results of this paper, we have also made recommendations for adjusting the economic structure to achieve emission reduction targets.