Impact Analysis of Urbanization for Chinese Energy Consumption Based on Panel Data of Chinese Provinces

This paper uses the IPAT model and the panel data of 30 provinces from 1997 to 2012 to study the effect of urbanization on Chinese energy consumption, and the result shows that the effect is positive, which of the elasticity coefficient is 0.2. It tests that urbanization has obvious "positive effect" on energy consumption, which mainly embodies the energy consumption on traffic, commodity consumption, daily life and construction (including residents housing), etc. will increase substantially in the process of urbanization. Based on the above research, the author put forward some suggestions, including decreasing the construction waste, enhancing the city plan and management level, and guiding the residents' consumption to upgrade.