Decoupling the lock-in effect between economic growth and CO2 emissions by structure adjustment: A final demand perspective

This study incorporates demand emission sensitivity into a programming model to explore the issue of decoupling the lock-in effect between economic growth and CO2 emissions through structure adjustment from a final demand perspective. As a demonstration, the proposed methodology is applied to data from China for the year 2012, the most relevant productive linkages and the most sensitive components of final demand in terms of CO2 emissions were identified. The results indicate that to formulate better carbon mitigation policies, we should pay more attention to the main internal linkages in terms of CO2 emissions within the economy.