An assessment of CO2 emissions: is China's tertiary industry environmentally friendly?

An input-output subsystem is used to discuss the CO2 emissions of China's tertiary industry by subdividing consumption activities of the tertiary sectors into five components. The results show that total CO2 emissions induced by the tertiary industry accounted for 17.4% of China's total CO2 emissions in 2007; of which direct emissions accounted for 3%, and pull effects of tertiary sectors on other sectors accounted for 20.2%. The pull effects of tertiary sectors on non-tertiary sectors must also be considered in order to establish a low-carbon development path for China's tertiary industry. Though China's tertiary sectors are relatively 'low-carbon' compared with non-tertiary sectors, to reduce the impact of tertiary sectoral behaviours on non-tertiary sectors, and design a reasonable sectoral structure for China's tertiary industry, are the key challenges for designing a real 'low-carbon' development path for China.