Evolution of CO2 emissions from domestic freight transport in China

It is analyzed the evolution of CO₂ emissions from domestic freight transport from 1985 to 2009 in China. A time series analysis is applied based on the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) technique to disassemble the total CO₂ emissions growth from domestic freight transport into five driving factors: economic activity, population, modal share, freight transport intensity and freight transport CO₂ emission factor. The results suggest that rapid growth of economic activity is the most important driving factor for the increased CO₂ emissions which account for 59% of the total positive effects, and that modal share change contributes significantly to emission increase by 23%, whereas population increase is responsible for the 8%. The inhibitory effects of freight transport CO₂ emissions growth are 55% from the improvement of freight transport intensity, and 45% from the change of freight transport CO₂ emission factor. However, these effects are too small to offset the whole increase.