Low-Carbon Development and Carbon Reduction in China

Reduction of carbon dioxide emission is of great significance to the sustainability of global development. For the developing countries, however, carbon reduction is perceived costly for its possible dampening effect on economic growth. This paper builds a Low-Carbon Development Index to assess the potentials for an economy to improve environmental efficiency of its development by reducing carbon dioxide emission while still achieving economic growth. Applying the index to a data set of 30 Chinese provincial economies from for the period 1998 to 2012, we evaluate the environmental efficiency of China's economic development in terms of carbon dioxide emission and discuss whether it is economically feasible for the country to reduce the country's carbon intensity by 40-45% from the level of 2005, a target committed by its government at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference (COP15)