The driving forces of material use in China: An index decomposition analysis

摘要: Abstract Based on its economic development and population expansion, China has become one of the most important countries in terms accounting for materials used worldwide. A deeper understanding how material use evolved is needed to devise appropriate policies future. This paper applied a logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decompose driving forces changes China's during 2002–2012 period into five component effects: population, activity, structural, intensity structural effects. In addition, decoupling was further analyse relationship between gross output per capita. The results show that Chinese risen from 11.8 billion tonnes 2002 35 2012 activity effect largest positive contributor growth use, followed by effect, positively promoted increase 2002–2007 period, although it played negative role 2007–2012 period. province-level analysis reveals substantial heterogeneity. Some provinces exhibit falling provinces, significantly increases. indicates relative no effects characterize main conditions across study Policy recommendations are then made based our findings.