Study on China's energy-related CO2 emission at provincial level

To begin with, the gravity model is used to study the spatial distribution and centers of gravity for energy-related CO2 emission at regional level and to determine how they have changed over the period 1995-2010 in this paper. Furthermore, the occurrence of a decoupling of each province region between economic activity and CO2 emission from energy consumption is examined based on decoupling index method. The main results are as follows: (1) In 1995, there were only seven provinces, each province of which emitted more than 150 Mt CO2. However, there were 25 provinces and each province's CO2 emission was more than 150 Mt in 2010. (2) In terms of the annual growth speed of CO2 emission, Neimenggu was the fastest. (3) During the study period, the centers of gravity for CO2 emission are an overall movement toward southwest. (4) During the study period, the decoupling index for 23 provincial regions firstly increased and then decreased; there were six provincial regions whose decoupling index increased continuously; however, the decoupling index for Tianjin firstly decreased and then increased.