Inter-regional economic-environmental correlation effects of power sector in China

Power sector is the pillar industry to promote China's rapid economic growth. It is also one of the sectors with the largest carbon emissions and water consumption. The green transformation of the power sector has become the focus of China's provincial economic and environmental policies. However, due to the complex inter-provincial power sector linkage, provincial power policies have spillover and overlapping effects, making it difficult for policies to coordinate and complement each other. Here, we quantify the value-added, CO2 emissions and water consumption driven by inter-provincial power sector linkage in China, and proposes differentiated policies at provincial and sectoral levels for green transformation of power sector. By quantifying the economic and environmental correlation effects among China's provincial power sectors, we found that low-carbon transformation of power sector in industrial provinces have higher economic costs. East and North China's policies committed to emission reduction in power sector can save more water.