Temporal and spatial determinants of carbon intensity in exports of electronic and optical equipment sector of China

As China's biggest exporting sector, electronic and optical equipment (EOE) sector is a key pilot to reduce carbon intensity in exports (CIE). This study explores China's evolution of CIE of EOE sector (CIEEOE) and its determinants during 2000–2014. Firstly, China's CIEEOE during 2000–2014 was estimated and compared with that of USA. Secondly, this study decomposes China's CIEEOE changes and its gaps with USA into six driving factors during 2000–2014, using temporal and spatial multiplicative SDA models individually. This study finds that (1) China's CIEEOE decreases greatly from 2.55 Kg/US$ to 0.11 Kg/US$ from 2000 to 2014. The ratio of China's CIEEOE level to that of USA drops from 17.21 in 2000 to 3.89 in 2014, while China's CIEEOE in 2014 (0.11Kg/US$) is merely close to that of USA in 2001 (0.11Kg/US$). (2) Temporal-SDA analysis shows that the domain determinants that decrease China's CIEEOE is emission coefficient, followed by the value added coefficient in 2000–2014. Inhibition effect of emission coefficient increased while value added coefficient decreased in four sub-intervals. Comparatively, input structure and final demand have small downward effects, but they behave differently when further distinguished by domestic and foreign parts. (3) Spatial-SDA analysis finds that the main drivers of CIEEOE gaps between China and USA is value added coefficient in 2000–2014, followed by the emission coefficient, which declines fast and is surpassed by domestic input structure effect after 2009. Policy implications on reducing China's CIEEOE are finally discussed.