Spatial heterogeneity analysis of CO₂ emissions in China’s thermal power industry: GWR model

Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Hebei 071003, China

^* Corresponding author: lf1129022676@163.com

Abstract

The thermal power industry is a major contributor to China's CO₂ emissions, and its absolute emissions are still increasing year by year. Hence, this paper introduced a geographically weighted regression model to explore the spatial heterogeneity of different driving factors for this industry's CO₂ emissions. The empirical results show that standard coal consumption is a decisive factor affecting thermal power industry's CO₂ emissions, and its response to the western region is at the forefront. The average utilization hours of thermal power equipment in the central region exert a profound impact, while the western region devotes a lot to the installed capacity, and these two variables have great potential for CO₂ emission mitigation. However, the urbanization level and per capita electricity consumption have a slight effect on CO₂ emissions. These findings furnish constructive reference and policy implications to achieve emission abatement targets of different regions.