Saving less in China facilitates global CO2 mitigation

Chen Lin; Jianchuan Qi; Sai Liang; Cuiyang Feng; Thomas O Wiedmann; Yihan Liao; Xuechun Yang; Yumeng Li; Zhifu Mi; Zhifeng Yang

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15175-2

Saving less in China facilitates global CO₂ mitigation

Nat Commun. 2020 Mar 13;11(1):1358. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15175-2.

Authors

Chen Lin^#¹, Jianchuan Qi^#², Sai Liang³, Cuiyang Feng², Thomas O Wiedmann⁴, Yihan Liao¹, Xuechun Yang², Yumeng Li², Zhifu Mi⁵, Zhifeng Yang^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, P. R. China.
² State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China.
³ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China. liangsai@bnu.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
⁵ The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, University College London, London, WC1E 7HB, UK.
⁶ Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, P. R. China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Transforming China's economic growth pattern from investment-driven to consumption-driven can significantly change global CO₂ emissions. This study is the first to analyse the impacts of changes in China's saving rates on global CO₂ emissions both theoretically and empirically. Here, we show that the increase in the saving rates of Chinese regions has led to increments of global industrial CO₂ emissions by 189 million tonnes (Mt) during 2007-2012. A 15-percentage-point decrease in the saving rate of China can lower global CO₂ emissions by 186 Mt, or 0.7% of global industrial CO₂ emissions. Greener consumption in China can lead to a further 14% reduction in global industrial CO₂ emissions. In particular, decreasing the saving rate of Shandong has the most massive potential for global CO₂ reductions, while that of Inner Mongolia has adverse effects. Removing economic frictions to allow the production system to fit China's increased consumption can facilitate global CO₂ mitigation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't