Decoupling Trend Analysis on Regional Energy Carbon Emissions and Economic Growth in China

On the basis of calculating carbon emissions from energy consumption in the provincial level,using de-coupling theory,cluster analysis and the Arc-GIS software,this paper makes an empirical analysis on the spatialdecoupling trend of carbon emissions and economic growth in China from 2001 to 2012. The results show that thedecoupling relationship between carbon emissions from energy consumption and economic growth in most provincesof China presents weak decoupling. After decomposing identity causal chain with progressive decoupling relation-ship, we find that the significant increase of energy efficiency in industrial sector and the steady advancement ofelectrification in energy consumption are the main reasons in slowing down the increase rate of carbon emissions,whereas the dependence of economic growth on industry,especially on heavy industry,is the most important rea-son of carbon emissions increase in the provinces of China during the same period.