Measuring the Interprovincial CO2 Emissions Considering Electric Power Dispatching in China: From Production and Consumption Perspectives

How to accurately measure the interprovincial CO2 emissions is key to achieving the task of energy saving and emission reduction. Electric power is very important for economy development. At the same time, the amount of interprovincial electric power dispatching is very large in China, so it is obligatory to measure the CO2 emissions from both electricity production and consumption perspectives. We have measured China's interprovincial CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion during 2000–2014, in which the revised regional electric power CO2 emissions are used to adjust interprovincial CO2 emissions. The obtained results show that: no matter from which perspective one considers the situation, the overall CO2 emissions of China are almost the same amount. From different perspectives, the interprovincial CO2 emissions are different. In terms of the production perspective, CO2 emissions of Beijing, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong are underestimated. However, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Shaanxi are overestimated. If the electric power dispatching is not considered, it is unfairly portrayed as transferring CO2 emissions from the electricity input provinces to the output ones, because the electricity input provinces enjoy clean energy, but the electricity production ones pay for the environmental pollution.