Has China's coal consumption actually reached its peak? National and regional analysis considering cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity

To investigate whether China's coal consumption has actually peaked, this study tests the national and regional coal Kuznets curve (CKC) hypothesis by using a panel dataset of 30 provinces covering 2000 to 2016. To fully capture the trends of coal consumption at the national, regional, and provincial levels, this study proposes a novel regional division method based on coal dependence and economic level. Considering the potential cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity, the newly developed methods allowing for heterogeneous slope coefficients are employed. The whole panel and subpanel results validate the CKC hypothesis for China, and province-specific results are mixed. The subpanel results reveal that only in the coal-dependent developing region has the peak of coal consumption not been reached, and for other regions, coal consumption displays a downward trend along with gross domestic product (GDP) increases. Furthermore, the province-specific results suggest that coal consumption will continue to increase slightly in certain provinces. This study implies that to reduce coal consumption, the coal-dependent developing region and provinces with a future turning point should act with great urgency to achieve a balance of economic growth and environmental responsibility. In addition, policymakers formulating coal consumption reduction policy in China must consider the remarkable differences across regions and provinces. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.