Responsive relationship between energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector and economic growth in Beijing—Based on decoupling theory

Decoupling theory is effective to analyze the interdependence between variables and has been applied in environmental economics. However, most of the previous literature focus on “decoupling” and “recoupling” analysis, while rarely consider their driving factors. This study aims to explore the relationship between transportation CO₂ emissions and economic growth in Beijing from 1995 to 2014 by an extended Tapio elastic analysis, considering the contribution from industrial emission reduction, industrial energy saving, industrial operating efficiency, and industrial development. The entire decoupling state between transportation CO₂ emissions and economic growth changed with time. From 1995 to 2005, the decoupling relationship between transportation CO₂ emissions and economic growth exhibits a fluctuation among expansive negative decoupling, weak decoupling, and expansive coupling. Since decoupling elasticity values among industrial energy saving, industrial operating efficiency and industrial development were variably large and neutralized with each other, interaction of these decoupling elasticities may explain the fluctuation of the entire decoupling effect during this period. During the period from 2006 to 2008, the negative impact of industrial energy-saving elasticity overtook the positive one from industrial operating efficiency elasticity, which leads to worsening in the decoupling state between transportation CO₂ emissions and economic growth. The decoupling state was improved from expansive negative decoupling to weak decoupling after 2008, which can be attributed to policy-oriented practices supporting energy conservation.