Coal consumption, CO2 emission and economic growth in China: Empirical evidence and policy responses

This article investigates the relationship between coal consumption and income in China using both supply-side and demand-side frameworks. Cointegration and vector error correction modeling show that there is a unidirectional causality running from coal consumption to output in both the short and lo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bloch, Harry, Rafiq, S., Salim, Ruhul
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/42861
Description
Summary:This article investigates the relationship between coal consumption and income in China using both supply-side and demand-side frameworks. Cointegration and vector error correction modeling show that there is a unidirectional causality running from coal consumption to output in both the short and long run under the supply-side analysis, while there is also a unidirectional causality running from income to coal consumption in the short and long run under the demand-side analysis. The results also reveal that there is bi-directional causality between coal consumption and pollutant emission both in the short and long run. Hence, it is very difficult for China to pursue a greenhouse gas abatement policy through reducing coal consumption. Switching to greener energy sources might be a possible alternative in the long run.