A Study on the Spatiotemporal Characteristics, Decoupling Effects, and Influencing Factors of Carbon Emissions in the Five Northwestern Provinces

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_20How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Carbon emissions; Tapio decoupling model; STIRPAT model; influencing factors; five northwestern provinces

Abstract

As a major energy-rich region and heavy industrial base in China, the five northwestern provinces shoulder critical responsibilities in achieving the nation’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Due to their resource-based industrial structure, these provinces exhibit a high-carbon lock-in, facing significant pressure to reduce emissions. Based on panel data from prefecture-level cities in this region from 2011 to 2023, this study systematically analyzes the spatiotemporal patterns, decoupling status, and influencing factors of carbon emissions. First, the carbon emission coefficient method is employed to calculate emissions and examine regional trends. Building on this foundation, the Tapio decoupling model is applied to investigate the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth. Subsequently, an extended STIRPAT model combined with ridge regression is used to empirically test influencing factors, leading to regionally differentiated emission reduction recommendations. The findings reveal an overall upward trend in carbon emissions across the five northwestern provinces, accompanied by significant regional disparities. Resource-rich areas and heavy industrial bases face particularly acute carbon emission pressures. The relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth exhibits distinct dynamic evolution characteristics. Key drivers of carbon emission growth in these provinces include total energy consumption, the proportion of secondary industry, population density, and per capita GDP. Based on this analysis, it is recommended that the five northwestern provinces accelerate energy efficiency improvements, promote green industrial restructuring, optimize population spatial distribution, implement tailored policies for cities at different decoupling stages, and establish precise regional emission reduction pathways.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jiahui Yu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/30
TI  - A Study on the Spatiotemporal Characteristics, Decoupling Effects, and Influencing Factors of Carbon Emissions in the Five Northwestern Provinces
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Humanities, Wisdom Education and Service Management (HWESM 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 158
EP  - 171
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_20
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-593-5_20
ID  - Yu2026
ER  -