Uncovering China’s transport CO₂ emission patterns at the regional level

With China’s rapid economic development, its transport sector has experienced a dramatic growth, leading to a large amount of related CO₂ emission. This paper aims to uncover China’s transport CO₂ emission patterns at the regional and provincial level. We first present the CO₂ emission features from transport sector in 30 Chinese provinces, including per capita emissions, emission intensities, and historical evolution of annual CO₂ emission. We then quantify the related driving forces by adopting both period-wise and time-series LMDI analysis. Results indicate that significant regional CO₂ emission disparities exist in China’s transport sector. The eastern region had higher total CO₂ emissions and per capita CO₂ emissions, but lower CO₂ emission intensities in its transport sector. The western region had higher CO₂ emission intensities and experienced a rapid CO₂ emission increase. The CO₂ emission increments in the eastern provinces were mainly contributed by both economic activity effect and population effect, while energy intensity partially offset the emission growth and energy structure had a marginal effect. However, in the central and western provinces, both economic activity effect and energy intensity effect induced the CO₂ emission increases, while the effects from population and energy structure change were limited. - Highlights: • The CO₂ emission features from transport sector in 30 Chinese provinces were presented. • The driving forces of CO₂ emissions from transport sector were quantified. • Regional disparities on China’s transport sector CO₂ emission exist. • Region-specific mitigation policies on transport sector CO₂ emission are needed