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Article history: China faces multiple pressures from both global climate change and local pollution. Given that China is
Received 3 December 2015 now taking economic growth and the improvement of people's living standards as its primary goal, it is
Received in revised form necessary to control a variety of environmental problems synergistically to minimize adverse socio-
20 April 2016
economic impacts. Using an inputeoutput model, this study aims to identify the important behaviors
Accepted 6 May 2016
Available online 14 May 2016
that simultaneously lead to various environmental discharges among the troika of China's economic
development (consumption, investment, and exports). The results show that behaviors that have an
obvious driving force behind multiple environmental discharges exist in all three nal use components.
Keywords:
Final use behavior
Household consumption of health care, residential services and real estate; investments in construction,
Input-output analysis transport equipment, and special purpose machinery and exports of electrical machinery/equipment and
Carbon emissions electronic equipment had obvious driving effects on most of the environmental discharges examined,
Pollutants totally covering 25.62% (COD (chemical oxygen demand))-54.91% (soot and dust) of the corresponding
China environmental discharges. Household consumption of electricity and heating and investments in general
purpose machinery are behaviors with obvious driving effects on CO2 emissions, air pollutants and solid
waste. Household consumption of agricultural byproducts, other processed foods, wine, drinks and
rened tea, textile wearing and apparel; exports of textiles, textile wearing and apparel, raw chemical
materials and chemical products had obvious driving effects on water pollutants. The characteristics of
these behaviors and their roles in social and economic development are then discussed. Based on the
discussions, potential ways to utilize the identied behaviors are recommended: household consump-
tion of electricity, heating, food, wine, drinks and rened tea, textile wearing and apparel should be
guided toward a more conservation-oriented approach; the structure of investments in transport
equipment, special and general purpose machinery, and exports of electrical machinery/equipment,
textiles, textile wearing and apparel, raw chemical materials and chemical products should be adjusted
toward more high-end products; the discharge intensities of the supply chain of health care, residential
services, real estate and electronic equipment should be further lowered; the investment in construction
should be planned more rationally, while the unnecessary waste of high-discharge-intensive construc-
tion materials should be avoided.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.048
0959-6526/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208 199
To maintain benign economic growth, continue to improve showed that when the carbon tax gradually rises from US$ 13/
people's livelihood and achieve sustainable development, the tCO2e in 2015 to US$ 200/tCO2e by 2050 and the accumulated
government of China has mentioned corresponding objectives for reduction of greenhouse gases reaches 83.9 million tons of CO2e,
controlling various environmental problems. For example, during the emissions of SO2, NOX, and non-methane volatile organic
the current 12th Five-Year Plan period (i.e., 2011e2015), the compounds (NMVOCs) will also decrease by 12%, 7% and 1%,
government aimed to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit respectively. Williams (2007) evaluated the air quality in the UK
of GDP by 17%, to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) and chemical oxygen around 2050, given the assumption that signicant changes will
demand (COD) by 8%, nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions and be made to energy and transport technologies in order to realize a
ammonia nitrogen discharges by 10%, and to reach the compre- 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 on a 1990 baseline;
hensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste of 72%. Corre- the authors found the possibility of signicant synergies and co-
sponding policies have been implemented to achieve these goals, benets. However, several policies controlling air pollutants
such as the establishment of a carbon trading market, the could also result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
installation of desulfurization and denitrication equipment in (Gielen et al., 2001; Li and Crawford-Brown, 2011; Morgenstern
factories and increasing treatment plants of wastewater and solid et al., 2004; Nam et al., 2013; Xu and Masui, 2009). For example,
waste. However, the reduction effects of these measures have not Gielen et al. (2001) analyzed the impact of a signicant reduction
been very successful, according to the latest China Statistical in local air pollution on GHG emissions in Shanghai for the
Yearbook on Environment 2015 (Ministry of Environmental 1995e2020 period. They found that, due to energy and local air
Protection, National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015). pollution reduction policies, CO2 emission discharges would drop
Compared to the situation in 2010, although SO2 emissions have by up to 24% in the year 2020 compared to the levels of the
decreased by 9.64%, the emissions of CO2, NOx, COD, ammonia baseline scenario. Morgenstern et al. (2004) studied the ancillary
nitrogen, soot and dust have increased by 14.86%, 12.18%, 85.3%, benets of reducing SO2 emissions from small, coal-burning
98.3%, 36.23%, respectively, in 2014. Moreover, the comprehensive boilers in Taiyuan and found that this policy would also lead to
utilization rate of industrial solid waste declined to 62.1% in 2014 a signicant reduction in carbon emissions (on the order of 50%e
(67.14% in 2010). Therefore, much more needs to be done to 95%).
accomplish these environmental objectives, which has introduced In general, there are two kinds of methods for achieving
a new problem: given that the generating mechanisms or driving synergies: technical measures and behavior adjustment. The use
sources of different environmental problems may have a certain of technical measures is a more fundamental and direct solution,
degree of similarity,1 if the solutions to each problem are so most existing studies have focused on this aspect to discuss
considered in isolation, the government may act excessively, issues such as synergistic reduction effects (Mao et al., 2011), the
leading to additional socio-economic losses.2 Considering that identication of various pollutant sources and corresponding
China should still make economic growth and the improvement of solutions (Valipour et al., 2012, 2013a, 2013b), the cost effec-
people's living standards its primary goals, it is necessary to tiveness of a certain technology (Hasanbeigi A et al., 2013; Yang
examine various environmental problems from the synergy et al., 2013) and the comparison of multiple technical means
perspective. (Chae, 2010). However, the use of technical measures has limi-
The synergistic control of different environmental problems has tations, such as high research and development costs and long
received increasing attention around the world. For example, The periods necessary for large-scale application. Moreover, because
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) put forward the technical measures are based primarily on generation mecha-
theory of co-benets in its 2001 Third Assessment Report (IPCC, nisms, they can usually control only the same form of pollutant.
2001), claiming that most policies about greenhouse gas mitiga- For example, it is difcult to control water pollution and carbon
tion also have other, at least equally important goals, including the emissions at the same time using a particular technology. This
reduction of air pollution. fact could also explain why most existing related studies, which
To date, many studies have been conducted on the topic of have targeted mainly technical measures and process monitoring,
synergistically controlling greenhouse gases and local pollutants. have focused on co-controlling greenhouse gases and air pollut-
Most of these studies have focused on the co-benets between ants. Regarding the drawbacks of technical measures and the
greenhouse gases and air pollutants, and they have generally severity of various problems China is currently facing, this study
supported the existence of potential synergistic effects. On one aims to explore the synergistic control of different environmental
hand, related climate policies, such as a carbon tax (Rypdal et al., problems from another perspective: behavior adjustment.
2007; Shakya et al., 2012), or technological progress measures, Behavior adjustment could be performed on intermediate use
such as the improvement of energy efciency (Creutzig and He, activities, e.g., to reduce the waste of input materials during the
2009; Williams, 2007), could lead to the reduction of air pollut- production process, or it can be performed on nal use activities.
ants while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Final use refers to consumption, investment, and exports, which
Shakya et al. (2012) analyzed the co-benets of introducing a are the troika driving economic development. Any kind of change
carbon tax in Nepal over the 2005e2050 period. Their results from nal use behaviors will ripple throughout the economic
system, thus leading to a corresponding change in environmental
discharges. Therefore, beginning with nal use behaviors, a con-
trol effect in which a slight move in one part affects the situation
1
For example, coal combustion will produce both CO2 and SO2 emissions, driving as a whole can be achieved. In reality, behavior adjustment is an
a car will lead to NOX and SO2 emissions simultaneously, and eating out will
important aspect that has received attention from the Chinese
generate waste gas and wastewater discharges at the same time.
2
For example, adopting a policy on coal when considering the goal of reducing government. For instance, several behavior adjustments have
carbon intensity by 17% may also cut some SO2 emissions. Accordingly, adopting been introduced in the 12th Five-Year Plan and 13th Five-Year
another policy on coal when considering the 8% SO2 emission reduction target can Plan, such as green consumption, low-carbon lifestyles, a green
also reduce some CO2 emissions simultaneously. Without considering this syner- supply chain and the development of a recycling economy.
gistic effect and still designing the policies according to their own environmental
objectives separately, the implementation of the two policies may lead to reduction
Moreover, researchers have also already focused on the envi-
effects greater than 17% (for carbon intensity) and 8% (for SO2 emissions); corre- ronmental impact of adjusting nal use behaviors in recent years
spondingly, it will have a greater impact on the economic system. and have produced a series of studies. For example, Jiang et al.
200 Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208
Table 1
Data sources.
Yc Final use (consumption) Columns 143e144 of Table 4.1 in the Inputeoutput table of China 2012
(Department of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015)
Yi Final use (investment) Column 147 of Table 4.1 in the Inputeoutput table of China 2012
(Department of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015)
Ye Final use (export) Column 148 of Table 4.1 in the Inputeoutput table of China 2012
(Department of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015)
M Import of different sectors Column 150 of Table 4.1 in the Inputeoutput table of China 2012
(Department of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015)
Zij Sector j's demand for Columns 1e139 of Table 4.1 in the Inputeoutput table of China 2012
inputs from sector i (Department of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015)
Xj Sectoral total output Column 151 of Table 4.1 in the Inputeoutput table of China 2012
(Department of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015)
Qi Energy consumption data for Table 4.2 in the China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2013
different industrial sectors (Department of Energy Statistics, National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2013)
Ei Caloric value of the i th energy Appendix 4 in the China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2013
(Department of Energy Statistics, National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2013)
Ci Carbon content per unit of Tables 2.2e2.10 in the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (IPCC, 2006)
caloric value of the i th energy
Oi Oxidation rate of the i th energy Tables 2e65 to 2e84 in the People's Republic of China National Greenhouse Gas Inventory
(National Climate Change Coordination Group Ofce, Energy Research Institute of the National
Development and Reform Commission, 2007)
Cp Waste gas, wastewater and solid waste Tables 2e12, 4e3, 5e3 in the China Statistical Yearbook on Environment 2013
discharges of different industrial sectors (Ministry of Environmental Protection, National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2013)
IPCC (IPCC, 2006).3 The direct CO2 emission intensity of each sector
Aij Zij Xj (4) was then calculated by dividing the sectoral direct CO2 emissions by
the corresponding sectoral total output data.
where Zij presents sector j's demand for inputs from sector i. It should be noted that because only detailed data for industrial
pollution discharges are available, only the environmental dis-
2.2. Data source charges from industrial sectors produced by various nal use be-
haviors are analyzed in this study. However, conclusions based on
The core database of this study is an inputeoutput table. The such a narrow scope of research objects remain without loss of
latest survey-based inputeoutput table of the year 2012 was generality, given the dominant position of direct industrial envi-
adopted in this study. This table covers 139 sectors in the most ronmental discharges in the corresponding total national dis-
detailed level of classication. Accordingly, all the other data used charges: in 2012, the industrial CO2, SO2, NOX, soot and dust and
in this study are also based on the statistics for the year 2012. The solid waste discharges accounted for 84.08%, 90.3%, 70.9%, 83.4%
specic indices and corresponding data sources are shown in and 95.44%, respectively, of total national discharges. The propor-
Table 1. Considering the different sector classications in different tion of industrial wastewater discharge, although smaller than that
data sources and according to the coarser aggregated sector di- of households, accounted for more than one-third of the total na-
visions in the energy and environment statistics, the sectors in the tional discharges (approximately 32.3%).
inputeoutput table were ultimately grouped into 44 sectors, as
shown in Appendix A. Moreover, the selections of the environ- 3. Results
mental discharges to be taken into account were based on the
availability of data and the existing environmental policies. For 3.1. General view
example, only SO2, not SOx, was taken into account because only
industrial SO2 emissions were accounted for in China's Environ- Because economic development is considered to be driven by
mental Statistics Report and only the mitigation of SO2 emissions the troika including consumption, investment and exports, the
are clearly mentioned in China's current policy planning, such as corresponding environmental discharges caused by different nal
the 12th Five-Year Plan. For similar reasons, only COD and use behaviors can also be analyzed from these three perspectives.
ammonia nitrogen are taken into account as water pollutants, The discharges of CO2, industrial waste gas (SO2, NOX, soot and
while other heavy metals, such as BOD and DO, are not considered dust), industrial wastewater (COD, ammonia nitrogen) and indus-
in the current study. trial solid waste4 actuated by different nal use components
With the basic data from the sources listed in Table 1, the direct (consumption, investment, and exports) in 2012 are shown in Fig. 1.
intensities of different environmental discharges can be calculated. Investment increased the gas emissions, as well as solid waste
The direct discharge intensities of different local pollutants were discharges, most, with its contribution to total industrial soot and
obtained by dividing the sectoral discharge data from China's
Environmental Statistics Report 2012 (Ministry of Environmental
Protection of PR China, 2013) by the corresponding sectoral total 3
The CO2 emission coefcients Ni can be calculated as this: Ni Ei $Ci $Oi $44=12,
output data from the inputeoutput table of China 2012 (Department where Ei is the caloric value of the i th energy, Ci is the carbon content per unit of
of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China, 2015). caloric value of the i th energy, Oi is the oxidation rate of the i th energy. The data
sources for these three variables are illustrated in Table 1.
The direct CO2 emissions of each sector were calculated by multi- 4
Solid wastes specically include hazardous waste, smelting waste, slag, etc. Our
plying the sectoral energy consumption Qi by the corresponding CO2 preliminary research shows that the industrial distribution characteristics of these
emission coefcients. Here, the CO2 emission coefcients for solid waste discharges are very similar; therefore, they are grouped together here
different fuels were calculated with the formula provided by the for simplicity.
202 Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208
250000
200000 3.2. Behaviors with obvious synergistic driving effects on each nal
150000 50
Fig. 2. Ratios of various environmental discharges driven by different household consumption behaviors to the corresponding total industrial discharges (%).
Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208 203
Fig. 3. Ratios of various environmental discharges driven by different investment behaviors to the corresponding total industrial discharges (%).
tea, textile wearing and apparel and other services were important behavior and the amount of discharges caused both directly and
behaviors that increased water pollutants. Therefore, household indirectly by the per-unit activity level of that behavior. We
consumption of other services was the main behavior that measured the former factor by the ratio of expenditures on a
commonly increased all three forms of discharge. However, other certain behavior to the total expenditures on the same kind of
services represents a fairly high degree of sector aggregation. To behavior, as shown in Table 2. The gures in each column repre-
improve the effectiveness and operability of the decision support, sent the ratio of expenditures on one specic behavior to the total
here, we further disaggregated the contributions of different be- expenditures on the same kind of behavior (%). For example, the
haviors within the household consumption for other services, as rst gure in column II (9.09) indicates that the ratio of
shown in Fig. 5. According to the results, household consumption of household consumption of agricultural byproducts to total
health care, residential services and real estate occupied important household consumption is 9.09%. The rst gure in column III
positions. (0.31) indicates that the ratio of investment in agricultural
Among investment behaviors (Fig. 3), investments in construc- byproducts to total investment is 0.31%. Only the major behaviors
tion, transport equipment, special purpose machinery and general identied in 3.2 are listed in Table 2. These major behaviors cover
purpose machinery were the main behaviors leading to industrial 49.18%, 87.18%, and 53.46% of household consumption, invest-
gas emissions and solid waste discharge. Investments in construc- ment, and exports, respectively. Here, the expenditure data were
tion, transport equipment and special purpose machinery were obtained from the inputeoutput table of China 2012 (Department
important behaviors that increased water pollutants. Therefore, of National Account of National Bureau of Statistics PR China,
investments in construction, transport equipment and special 2015). We measured the latter by introducing the Index of the
purpose machinery were the main behaviors that commonly Power of Dispersion suggested by Rasmussen (Miller and Blair,
increased all three forms of discharge. 2009). The Index of the Power of Dispersion is a normalized to-
Among export behaviors (Fig. 4), exports of electrical machin- tal backward linkage index with an average value of unity (Miller
ery/equipment and electronic equipment (including communica- and Blair, 2009). It describes the relative extent to which a one-
tion equipment, computers, and other electronic equipment) were unit increase in the nal use of a given product will both
the main behaviors leading to all/most of the industrial gas emis- directly and indirectly increase the output of all sectors in the
sions, water pollutants and solid waste discharge. Exports of tex- economic system. Similarly, we introduced the Environmental
tiles, textile wearing and apparel and raw chemical materials and Index of the Power of Dispersion5 (hereafter abbreviated the
chemical products were important behaviors increasing water Environmental Index) to measure the relative extent to which a
pollutants. Therefore, exports of electrical machinery/equipment one-unit increase in the nal use of a given product will impact
and electronic equipment were important behaviors that
commonly increased all three forms of discharge.
5
4. Discussion: how to utilize the identied behaviors? Suppose N is an n n matrix of total discharge coefcients
NC b p $I A M1 , where the element np represents the total amount of the p th
ij
To utilize the identied behaviors more efciently, further dis- discharge from sector i driven both directly and indirectly by one unit of nal use of
cussions taking into account the characteristics of the behaviors product j. Then, the Environmental Index of the Power of Dispersion is dened as
Pn
N
and their roles in the social and economic development of China are aj 1 Pn i1
Pnij , and it describes the relative extent to which the one-unit increase
n i1 j1
Nij
required. in the nal use of product j is dispersed throughout each sector's discharges in the
The amount of environmental discharges driven by any nal economy. aj > 1 means that the pull effect is high (above average), while aj < 1
use behavior depends on two factors: the activity level of the means that the pull effect is low (below average).
204 Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208
Fig. 4. Ratios of various environmental discharges driven by different export behaviors to the corresponding total industrial discharges (%).
Fig. 5. Ratios of various environmental discharges driven by household consumption for different other service items to the corresponding total industrial discharges (%).
both directly and indirectly the discharges of all sectors in the smaller than 1 (Table 3). The environmental impacts of these be-
economic system, as shown in Table 3. haviors came mainly from their high activity levels, with the cor-
responding ratios both being greater than 3% (Table 2) and ranking
4.1. Household consumption behaviors among the top nine expenditure items. However, it might not be
appropriate to utilize these two behaviors by restricting their ac-
(1) Household consumption of health care, residential services tivity levels. On one hand, the low Environmental Indices imply low
and real estate mitigation efciency, i.e., a signicant reduction in the activity level
of these behaviors might be required in order to realize meaningful
Most of the Environmental Indices for household consumption environmental mitigation. On the other hand, the social status of
on health care, residential services and real estate were obviously health care, residential services and real estate implies that it is
Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208 205
Table 2 being greater than 3, which will lead to high mitigation efciency.
Ratios of various behavioral expenditures to the expenditures on the same kinds of Moreover, saving energy aligns with the goals of sustainable
behaviors (%).a development. Therefore, these behaviors should be utilized by
Products Household Investment Exports guiding households toward using electricity and heating in a more
consumption conservative way, with measures such as tiered pricing for elec-
Agricultural byproducts 9.09 0.31 1.39 tricity and distributed central heating.
Other processed foods 5.77 0.25 0.43
Wine, drinks and rened tea 2.83 0.12 0.20 (3) Household consumption of foods, wine, drinks and rened
Textiles 0.43 0.09 3.79
tea, textile wearing and apparel
Textile wearing and apparel 3.13 0.03 5.05
Raw chemical materials and 0.81 0.02 3.67
chemical products As shown in Table 2, expenditure on foods (including agricul-
General purpose machinery 0.08 5.54 5.16 tural byproducts and other processed foods), wine, drinks and
Special purpose machinery 0.07 8.09 2.63 rened tea, and textile wearing and apparel are among the top
Transport equipment 3.52 10.94 4.28
Electrical machinery/equipment 1.75 3.52 7.85
fteen greatest ratios in total household expenditures, all being
Computers, communication, and 1.86 2.59 22.02 greater than 2.50%. Moreover, the Environmental Indices of these
other electronic equipment behaviors on both COD and ammonia nitrogen were all greater than
Electric power and heat power 1.44 0.00 0.06 1 (Table 3). Considering the fundamental roles of food, wine, drinks
Construction 0.00 51.90 0.57
and rened tea, textile wearing and apparel in people's daily life, it
Real estate 10.41 3.79 0.00
Residential services 3.43 0.00 0.03 is not appropriate to guide households to reduce their consumption
Health care 5.38 0.00 0.03 levels signicantly. However, given their relatively high Environ-
a
Only the behaviors identied in 3.2 are listed in the table.
mental Indices on water pollutants, even a small adjustment in
these behaviors can generate obvious environmental effects. In this
sense, avoiding waste in food, wine, drinks and rened tea, textile
wearing and apparel could contribute both economically and
impossible and improper to guide households to reduce con- environmentally. Therefore, the current promotion in China of the
sumption of any of them. Moreover, with the development and practice of frugality in the consumption of food, wine, drinks and
progress of society, there will be an increasing need for health care, rened tea should continue to be encouraged, whether for dining
residential services and real estate. Therefore, although these be- out or eating at home. Unnecessary waste of textile wearing and
haviors' Environmental Indices are relatively low, we might still apparel should also be avoided.
need to take advantage of these behaviors by further lowering the
discharge intensities of their supply chains. For example, according
to the corresponding sectoral production structure and Table 3, 4.2. Investment behaviors
unnecessary waste of electricity and building materials should be
avoided in the health care, residential services and real estate (1) Investment in construction
sectors.
As shown in Table 2, the ratio of investment in construction to
(2) Household consumption of electricity and heating the total investment was greater than 51%. Moreover, as shown in
Table 3, the Environmental Indices of this behavior on all the gases
As seen in Table 3, household consumption of electricity and and solid waste were between 1 and 3, and those on water pol-
heating had relatively high Environmental Indices for the dis- lutants were both smaller than 1. Therefore, the investment scale
charges of all gases and solid waste, with all of these coefcients was the main reason for this behavior being the largest driver of all
the environmental problems examined, and adjusting its activity
Table 3
Environmental Indices of the Power of Dispersion of nal uses of different products.a
level would generally have above-average mitigation efciency. general value-added rate could increase and, hence, the same
However, China is currently in the process of accelerated urbani- prot could be maintained with a reduced number of items
zation, whether through urban agglomeration, in-situ urbaniza- exported. For instance, the share of high-end and brand products in
tion, or other means, inevitably leading to the continued expansion total exports should increase.
of the construction scale in order to satisfy its huge infrastructure
needs. Moreover, with the advancement of urbanization, greater 5. Conclusion and policy implications
demands for dwellings will also increase the demand for con-
struction. Therefore, it is neither reasonable nor realistic to signif- To take advantage of the fundamental roles that nal uses play
icantly cut down the scale of investment in construction in the near in increasing economic development to provide decision support
future. Considering the currently prevalent phenomena of massive for China as it addresses its multiple severe environmental prob-
demolition and architecture, as well as short-lived buildings, at lems, this study employed an inputeoutput model to calculate the
present, this behavior could be utilized through more delicate and discharges driven by different nal use behaviors for seven types of
reasonable planning to strictly limit these seriously inefcient and environmental discharges (CO2, SO2, NOX, soot and dust, COD,
unsustainable construction practices in China. Furthermore, the ammonia nitrogen, and solid waste). This research contributes to
unnecessary waste of high-discharge-intensive materials, such as existing studies by addressing the synergistic problem from the
cement, lime, and steel, during the construction process should be perspective of nal use and by taking into account different forms
avoided. of environmental discharges (gases, liquids, and solids).
According to the results, behaviors that have obvious driving
(2) Other identied investment behaviors effects on multiple environmental discharges existed in all three
components of nal use (consumption, investment, and exports).
The combined ratios of investments in general purpose ma- More specically, we note the following:
chinery, special purpose machinery, and transport equipment to
total investments were greater than 24%, and most of the Envi- (1) The behaviors that had obvious driving effects on most of the
ronmental Indices of these behaviors on air emissions and solid environmental discharges examined (covering all three
waste were close to or slightly greater than 1. Thus, adjusting the forms) included the following: household consumption on
activity level of these behaviors would also have approximately health care, residential services and real estate; investments
average mitigation efciency. This, too, cannot be done in a simple in construction, transport equipment, and special purpose
way. The current vigorous promotion of urbanization and heavy machinery; exports of electrical machinery/equipment and
industrialization in China will inevitably boost continuous re- electronic equipment.
quirements for various kinds of machinery/equipment. In partic- (2) In addition to those listed in (1), the behaviors with obvious
ular, in order to improve the competitiveness of high-end driving effects on CO2 emissions, air pollutants and solid
equipment against similar foreign products and, thus, strengthen waste included the following: household consumption of
independent innovation ability, investment in high-end equipment electricity and heating and investments in general purpose
must be and should be further increased. In contrast, the invest- machinery.
ment scale of low-end equipment could be properly decreased, (3) In addition to those listed in (1), the behaviors with obvious
considering its current overcapacity. driving effects on water pollutants included the following:
household consumption of agricultural byproducts, other
4.3. Export behaviors processed foods, wine, drinks and rened tea, textile wearing
and apparel, and exports of textiles, textile wearing and
The exports of textiles, textile wearing and apparel, raw apparel, raw chemical materials and chemical products.
chemical materials and chemical products, electrical machinery/
equipment and electronic equipment all had relatively high vol- Utilization of the identied behaviors requires an elaborate
umes (ranking in the top 9 of all exported items). Among these design in view of the production characteristics of related products
behaviors, the export of electronic equipment had relatively low and the roles these behaviors play in the socio-economic devel-
Environmental Indices (all obviously smaller than 1). Moreover, the opment of a country. Our preliminary discussions show that few of
manufacture of electronic equipment is technology intensive and these behaviors could be utilized in a straightforward way. The
will play a critical role in the informationization process that is utilization of most of the identied behaviors could begin with
currently vigorously promoted in China. Therefore, exports of these lowering invalid or ineffective content in their activity levels. In
products should not be restricted but rather should be appropri- addition, the supply chain of the identied behaviors should be
ately encouraged. Considering that these products remain at the regulated to reduce the environmental impacts per unit activity
lower end of the global value chain, the transition to a high-end level, especially for those behaviors whose activity level should not
global value chain should be made. The Environmental Indices of be depressed but rather continuously promoted. Based on the
the effects of the other four behaviors on related discharges (i.e., discussions in Section 4, the following policy recommendations are
the effect of exporting electrical machinery/equipment on gas proposed.
emissions and solid waste and the effect of exporting textiles,
textile wearing and apparel, raw chemical materials and chemical (1) The conservation of household consumption of electricity
products on water pollutants) were close to or greater than 1, and heating should be continuously promoted, as should the
implying approximately average or higher mitigation efciency. reduction of waste in the household consumption of foods,
However, considering the potential negative impact on China's wine, drinks and rened tea, textile wearing and apparel.
terms of trade and employment (especially on that of the low-end
electrical machinery/equipment and textile industries, raw chem- Currently in China, there are, in fact, policies addressing such
ical materials and chemical products, which are usually labor adjustments. For example, the tiered pricing of electricity, distrib-
intensive), adjustment of the activity level of these behaviors uted central heating, and the promotion of frugal practices in food
should adopt a cautious and gradual approach. Moreover, the consumption are all such kinds of policies. Although the original
export structure of these products should be adjusted so that the intentions of these policies are conserving energy and food, the
Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208 207
results of this study indicate that they could also serve to co-control (4) The regulation of investments in construction needs to pro-
multiple forms of environmental discharge. Therefore, such policies ceed along two lines: improving the rationality of investment
should be continuously promoted and extended for wider planning (avoiding massive demolition and architecture, as
coverage. For example, similar to the current clear your plate well as short-lived buildings) and avoiding the unnecessary
campaign that reminds people to avoid waste when ordering waste of high-discharge-intensive materials during the
dishes at restaurants, more reasonable daily food procurement construction process.
planning should also be advocated so that the disposal of food (e.g.,
due to expiration or regretful buying) can be reduced. Related Investment in construction exhibits the largest effects on
propaganda with more information disclosure, e.g., making increasing all the environmental discharges examined in this study,
households realize the environmental and economic benets of accounting for 13.70% (COD) to 41.20% (soot and dust) of the cor-
such behavior adjustments, could also be performed to prompt responding total industrial discharges. It is quite possible that these
wider household participation. environmental pressures will continue to increase, given the
expansion of the construction scale evoked by the current accel-
(2) The structure of investments in transport equipment, special erated urbanization in China. Therefore, it is particularly important
purpose machinery and general purpose machinery should double down on efforts to address the multiple environmental
be adjusted to reduce the overcapacity of low-end equip- impacts of investment in construction: on one hand, reducing
ment; similarly, the structure of exports of electrical ma- invalid or ineffective construction activities, and, on the other hand,
chinery/equipment, textiles, textile wearing and apparel, raw further reducing the discharge intensity of the construction supply
chemical materials and chemical products should be trans- chain.
formed towards high-end and brand products. To provide more effective decision support, a series of future
improvements are needed. An important future task would be to
Although most of the Environmental Indices of the effects of update the database of our analysis. The IO tables were compiled
these behaviors on related discharges were close to 1, implying based on a large-scale economic census that can be carried out
approximately average mitigation efciency; a signicant only every ve years in China due to its complexity. The most
decrease in these behaviors' activity levels is also inappropriate, recent IO table available is from the year 2012, which is relatively
given the requirements for boosting various kinds of machinery/ a long time ago. Between then and now, there could have been
equipment due to the current dramatic advancement of urbani- several dramatic changes in the economic structure of China. This
zation and heavy industrialization in China and considering the possibility is the main source of error in this study, although the
potential negative impact on China's terms of trade and employ- sectors considered in this study have been highly aggregated
ment. The current status of these behaviors is that there is obvious from the original IO table; thus, the impacts of economic struc-
overproduction of low-end products. Therefore, the utilization of ture changes could be reduced to some extent. Therefore, it is
these behaviors could begin with adjusting their composition very necessary to update this study when more up-to-date
structure, i.e., by reducing the current overcapacity of low-end inputeoutput data, either survey-based or non-survey-based,
products. are available. This process will allow the recent characteristics
of social and economic development to be better taken into ac-
(3) The multiple environmental impacts driven by the growing count and for the temporal dynamics of these behaviors to be
household consumption of health care, residential services better compared. Another important future goal is to improve the
and real estate, as well as by the increasing exports of elec- discussion on the utilization of the identied behaviors. In this
tronic equipment, should be given attention and addressed study, only the behaviors that need to be controlled were dis-
by further lowering the discharge intensities of their supply cussed. To maintain the development of the economy and the
chains. improvement of people's living standards, when several activities
are to be restricted, others should be promoted. Which activities,
As shown by the results, these behaviors have obvious driving then, should be promoted? Answers to this question will require
effects on multiple forms of environmental discharges, with the optimization designs by combining the environmental objectives
discharges driven by household consumption of health care, resi- with socio-economic goals, such as economic growth and social
dential services and real estate accounting for 0.44% (soot and dust) welfare. Moreover, utilization of the behaviors usually requires
to 1.87% (COD), while those driven by the export of electronic corresponding policies. The discussions in this paper provide only
equipment accounting for 2.23% (soot and dust) to 3.20% (ammonia potential focuses and starting points for building policy scenarios.
nitrogen). Most of the Environmental Indices of these behaviors The actual optional policies and the elements of different policies
were obviously smaller than 1, implying low mitigation efciency; need much more delicate designs. Moreover, because any kind of
hence, a signicant reduction in activity levels might be required in change from nal use behaviors will ripple throughout the eco-
order to realize a meaningful amount of environmental mitigation. nomic system, the economy-wide impact caused by the corre-
However, the economic and social status of these behaviors de- sponding policies should be carefully examined.
termines that their activity levels should be encouraged instead of
restricted. Therefore, it is quite possible that multiple environ-
mental pressures from these behaviors will increase further in the Acknowledgments
future. To partially alleviate such pressures, the discharge in-
tensities of the supply chain of these behaviors, although already The authors gratefully acknowledge nancial support from the
relatively low, should be further lowered. For example, combining National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos.
the Environmental Indices and shares of different inputs, the con- 71422011, 71461137006, 71521002 and 71001007; the Programme
servation of electricity usage in the health care, residential services for New Century Excellent Talents in University under Grant No.
and real estate industries should be further promoted through NCET-12-0039; and the Funding scheme for training excellent
measures such as energy performance contracting. talent of Beijing City under Grant No. 2013D009011000003.
208 Q.-M. Liang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 131 (2016) 198e208
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