Decouple indicators on the CO2 emission-economic growth linkage: The Jiangsu Province case

•The CO2 emissions of Jiangsu over the period 1995–2009 are calculated based on the presented method.•This paper examines the occurrence of a decoupling between economic activity and CO2 emission.•Jiangsu economy experienced weak decoupling and strong decoupling except 2003–2005.

Jiangsu Province has become one of the most developed regions in China. Economic growth in Jiangsu has occurred along with rising energy-related CO2 emission levels. Thus, the link between economic activity and environmental pressure represents a risk to the global efforts toward CO2 emission reductions. This paper examines the occurrence of a decoupling between the growth rates in economic activity and CO2 emission from energy consumption in Jiangsu from 1995 to 2009. The results indicate that: (1) Along with the rapid economic development, CO2 emission in Jiangsu rose from 18,781.46 × 104 t in 1995 to 52,029.24 × 104 t in 2009, with an average annual growth rate of 7.54%. Our results also show that CO2 emission in Jiangsu Province is dominated by the secondary, which accounts for about 80% of total CO2 emission. (2) During the study period, the whole Jiangsu economy experienced weak decoupling and strong decoupling except 2003–2005. However the decoupling states for the secondary and tertiary industries are similar to that of the whole economy.