The Impacts of Income Inequality on China’s Carbon Emissions: A Longitudinal Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-052-7_113How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Income inequality; Environmental economics; Carbon emissions; Sustainability; China

Abstract

Reducing inequalities while boosting economic growth has long been a primary social policy objective for many countries. Human emissions of carbon dioxide, on the other hand, as a chief driver of global warming and other environmental issues, are becoming an increasingly important consideration for governments in formulating sustainable development policies. However, a consensus on the relationship between achieving the two goals has yet to be reached due to the interactive effects of the emission-reduction and income redistribution policies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impacts of income inequality on carbon emissions in China. The data of China’s Gini coefficients and the emissions of carbon dioxide from 1981 to 2017 are chosen in this study to indicate the income inequality and carbon emission levels respectively. Correlation analysis and linear regression models are employed to examine the relationship, and the findings suggest a positive correlation between levels of income inequality and carbon emissions in China and that a time lag exists between the two variables. The results are analyzed from both the consumption and production perspectives with particular references to China’s enhancing living standards, improving productivity and technological advances. The findings offer a perspective for understanding the synergy and conflicts between achieving both policy objectives, to preserve the environment while increasing economic welfare for sustainable growth and development of China’s economy.

Copyright

© 2022 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  - Zijia Li
AU  - Ruiyi Yang
AU  - Zhiyang Zhong
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/27
TI  - The Impacts of Income Inequality on China’s Carbon Emissions: A Longitudinal Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Economics, Smart Finance and Contemporary Trade (ESFCT 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 995
EP  - 1004
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-052-7_113
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-052-7_113
ID  - Li2022
ER  -