Saving less in China facilitates global CO<sub>2</sub> mitigation.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32170147.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-15175-2 and PMC identifier 7070072.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Transforming China's economic growth pattern from investment-driven to consumption-driven can significantly change global CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. This study is the first to analyse the impacts of changes in China's saving rates on global CO<sub>2</sub> emissions both theoretically and empirically. Here, we show that the increase in the saving rates of Chinese regions has led to increments of global industrial CO<sub>2</sub> emissions by 189 million tonnes (Mt) during 2007-2012. A 15-percentage-point decrease in the saving rate of China can lower global CO<sub>2</sub> emissions by 186 Mt, or 0.7% of global industrial CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Greener consumption in China can lead to a further 14% reduction in global industrial CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. In particular, decreasing the saving rate of Shandong has the most massive potential for global CO<sub>2</sub> reductions, while that of Inner Mongolia has adverse effects. Removing economic frictions to allow the production system to fit China's increased consumption can facilitate global CO<sub>2</sub> mitigation.