Study on the changes of the decoupling indicator between energy-related CO2 emission and GDP in China

The decoupling analysis is a useful method to study the relationship between economic growth (GDP) and energy consumption or environment issue. However, no paper has paid attention to why does decoupling indicator changes over time? Based on the Log-Mean Divisia Index (LMDI), this paper provides a new way to study the changes of C-G (CO2 emission-GDP) decoupling indicator in China. The changes of C-G decoupling indicator are decomposed into C-EF (CO2 emission-Fossil energy consumption) decoupling indicator effect, EF-E (Fossil energy consumption-Total energy consumption) decoupling indicator effect, E-G (Total energy consumption-GDP) decoupling indicator effect. The main results as follows: (1) In China, energy-related CO2 emission increased to 8858.47 Mt in 2013. (2) During the study period, coal accounted for more than 67% of total primary energy consumption. (3) The curve of energy intensity has the same trend as the CO2 emission coefficient. (4) Over the study period, only three decoupling statuses occurred in the C-G decoupling. (5) During the study period, the E-G decoupling effect played an important role in the change of C-G decoupling indicator. However, the C-EF decoupling effect played a minor role in the change of C-G decoupling indicator over 1996–2013.