What is the role of economic growth and openness for China’s environment? An analysis based on Divisia decomposition method from the regional angle

Observing the weakness in the previous structural analyses on Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) formation, in this paper, author deepens the analysis into the detailed data of production and SO2 emission intensity of the 29 industrial sectors (occupying over 98% of the total industrial production) in each Chinese province during 1991-2001. With the aid of Divisia Index Decomposition method, the variation of the provincial-level industrial SO2 emission with regard to the original level of 1990 is decomposed into the contribution from its three determinants: the variations in production scale, composition transformation and technique progress. The following analyses employ the decomposition results to further interrogate the potential links of these region-specific environmental impacts with economic growth and commercial openness in each province.