Exploring the driving forces of energy consumption and environmental pollution in China's cement industry at the provincial level

Identifying strategies for reducing energy consumption and environmental pollution in China's cement industry requires a comprehensive analysis of the sector on various scales, taking into account, in particular, the heterogeneity of abatement options. We develop a spatial and temporal decomposition analysis to quantitatively examine the driving forces of energy consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and air pollutant emissions in China's cement industry at the national and provincial scales during the period 2005–2012. The results show that, nationally, due to the rapid growth of cement and clinker production, CO₂ emissions experienced a substantial increase. While the emissions of Sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM) were found to initially decrease (due to stringent air pollution standards), and then rose due to the increase of cement production. At the provincial level, we also observe that the developing regions (e.g. Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Sichuan) have a large share of total emissions of CO₂ and air pollutants, while the megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin contributed less to the total emissions. From spatial decomposition perspective, the energy intensity and emission factor affect CO₂ emissions largely but have a negative linear relationship primarily in developing regions. The findings in this study can directly be used to narrow down the projection of GHG mitigation and air pollution abatement on economic and technical perspectives and help policy maker to identify priority options for tackling the issues of global climate change and improve regional air quality.