Decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions growth in the United States: The role of research and development

The United States has achieved economic growth compatible with carbon reduction since 2007. This work is addressed to understand the eight effects, especially effects related to research & development (R&D) on the decoupling economic growth from carbon emission through a decomposition technique and a decoupling effort model. The results of sector analysis show that the changes of carbon emission in industry sector and transportation sector were dominant contributor and inhibitor to the drop of carbon emission, respectively. The decomposition results indicate that energy intensity was the leading contributor to the drop of carbon emission, followed by R&D intensity, sectoral carbon intensity, R&D efficiency; whereas economic scale was the primary inhibitor to the drop of carbon emission, followed by investment intensity, population size and sectoral energy structure. The results of decoupling efforts analysis uncover that energy intensity, R&D intensity, R&D efficiency and sectoral carbon intensity contributed to decoupling economic growth from carbon emission, whereas investment intensity, population size and sectoral energy structure did not contribute to the decoupling. Finally, some policy implications are proposed. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.