Study on China’s energy-related CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emission at provincial level

To begin with, the gravity model is used to study the spatial distribution and centers of gravity for energy-related CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emission at regional level and to determine how they have changed over the period 1995–2010 in this paper. Furthermore, the occurrence of a decoupling of each province region between economic activity and CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emission from energy consumption is examined based on decoupling index method. The main results are as follows: (1) In 1995, there were only seven provinces, each province of which emitted more than 150 Mt CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>. However, there were 25 provinces and each province’s CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emission was more than 150 Mt in 2010. (2) In terms of the annual growth speed of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emission, Neimenggu was the fastest. (3) During the study period, the centers of gravity for CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emission are an overall movement toward southwest. (4) During the study period, the decoupling index for 23 provincial regions firstly increased and then decreased; there were six provincial regions whose decoupling index increased continuously; however, the decoupling index for Tianjin firstly decreased and then increased. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015