Carbon emission and economic output of China's marine fishery - A decoupling efforts analysis

While marine capture fishery contributes to ever-increasing economic output, it also produces ever-increasing carbon emissions. Increasing the economic output of marine capture fishery while controlling its carbon emis-sions requires a better understanding of the relationship between the economic output of marine capture fishery and its carbon emissions. To this end, this work investigated the relationship between carbon emission and economic output, the key influencing factors of carbon emission, and the decoupling efforts in China's marine capture fishery using decoupling index, decomposition technique, and decoupling efforts model. The results indicate: (i) Decoupling state of all coastal regions got improved, especially Guangdong province which pre-sented the best decoupling state, the stably strong decoupling. (ii) Carbon intensity is not only major contributor to carbon reduction, but also major effort maker to decoupling progress. On the contrary, industry structure was the primary inhibitor in almost coastal regions. (iii) All coastal regions made decoupling efforts in studying period, and over half of them made strong decoupling efforts. Last but not least, some policy implications are proposed.

Automated summary

The study found that the decoupling state of all coastal regions improved, with Guangdong province showing the best decoupling state and strong decoupling progress. Carbon intensity was not only a major contributor to carbon reduction, but also a key driver of decoupling efforts. Industry structure was identified as the primary inhibitor in most coastal regions. All coastal regions made decoupling efforts during the study period, with over half of them making strong decoupling efforts.