Exploring the Nexus of Energy Consumption Structure and CO2 Emissions in China: Empirical Evidence Based on the Translog Production Function

With the rapid development of China's economy, CO2 emissions have surged and environmental pollution has become increasingly serious, drawing broad attention domestically and overseas. To improve China's environmental quality, the Chinese government has set a series of ambitious goals to control carbon intensity and even cut total CO2 emissions. China's energy consumption structure relies heavily on coal, which is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions in China. However, so far research on the relationship between energy consumption structure and CO2 emissions in China remains scarce. This paper investigates this topic for the first time and calculates the input-output and alternative elasticities and impacts the energy consumption structure on carbon emissions per capita on the basis of the translog production function as the theoretical framework. The empirical results suggest that to substitute coal with oil or gas may decrease CO2 emissions significantly, and replacing coal with gas is the optimal choice. As such, improving China's energy structure by increasing the share of gas and decreasing the reliance on coal would cut China's CO2 emissions remarkably and benefit China's environmental quality.