Freight Transport CO₂ Emission and Its Decomposition in Mega Cities of China -A Case study of Beijing and Shanghai-

抄録

 In order to find out the potential causes that affect CO₂ emission and their changes in freight transport sector, this paper examines the relationship between carbon dioxide emission and transportation activities in the sector. First, CO₂ emission from the freight transport sector from 2001 to 2010 is calculated based on presented methods. Second, LMDI (logarithmic mean Divisia index) method is employed to analyze the influencing factors of CO₂ emission in freight transport sector. As a result, we find: (1) from 2001 to 2010, CO₂ emission of freight transport in Beijing increased by 69%, i.e., from 3.50 million tons to 5.91 million-tons, while that in Shanghai rose by 242%, i.e., from 4.23 million tons to 14.5 million tons; (2) based on the result obtained by using LMDI method, population effect, per capita GDP effect, energy source effect and mode shift effect have positive effects on CO₂ emission in both cities; while the factors of transport intensity and the emission coefficient effect show negative impacts on CO₂ emission; (3) the reason why the decrease in transport intensity appears is that transported products are becoming more and more valuable and more value added. Therefore, policy makers should make corresponding policies to encourage rail transport and shorter travel distance in the freight transport sector to reduce CO₂ emission.