DECOUPLING ELASTICITY OF CARBON EMISSIONS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH OF TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY IN ZHEJIANG PROVINCE AND ITS INFLUENCING FACTORS

This paper aims to explore the decoupling states and influencing factors of carbon emissions and economic growth of transportation industry in Zhejiang Province, China. By employing the Tapio decoupling model, the paper analysed the decoupling relationship between the carbon emissions of transportation industry of Zhejiang and the economic growth of the industry between 2004 and 2017; then, it decomposed and explored the influencing factors using the LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) decomposition method. The research results showed that, the decoupling states of the two during the study period were "expansive coupling" and "weak decoupling"; among the various influencing factors, the industry scale effect was the most significant one; moreover, the carbon emission increment brought by the industry scale effect was far greater than the carbon emission reduction brought by the improvement of energy utilisation.