Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 4149: Decoupling Analysis of CO2 Emissions in Transportation Sector from Economic Growth during 1995-2015 for Six Cities in Hebei, China (Sustainability)

The transport sector is one of the most important and potential sectors to achieve low-carbon development in China. As economic growth is desirable, but high-level traffic CO2 emissions are not. This paper estimated the on-road traffic CO2 emissions and investigated the decoupling states of traffic CO2 emissions from economic growth for six cities in Hebei province from 1995 to 2015. In 2015, the on-road traffic CO2 emissions were ranked, as follows: Tangshan (4.75 Mt) > Handan (3.38 Mt) > Baoding (1.38 Mt) > Zhangjiakou (1.05 Mt) > Langfang (1.01 Mt) > Chengde (0.46 Mt). Two turning points of traffic CO2 emissions during the study period were found. From 2008 to 2013, the traffic CO2 emissions increased more rapidly than before. After 2013, the traffic CO2 emissions of three cities (Baoding, Handan and Chengde) began to decrease, and the traffic CO2 emissions’ growth rates of the other three cities (Zhangjiakou, Langfang and Tangshan) became lower than before. The decoupling states during 1996–2015 can be divided into four phases: decoupling-coupling concurrence stage (1996–2000), decoupling dominant stage (2001–2008), coupling dominant stage (2009–2013), and improvement stage (2014–2015). Chengde and Baoding were identified due to their good local practice on decoupling CO2 emissions in transport sector from economic growth. These results will enrich the greenhouse gas inventory of China at city level and provide scientific support to achieve the mitigation of CO2 emissions in the transport sector.