Decoupling relationship between carbon emission and economic development in the service sector: case of 30 provinces in China

The decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and the economic development in the service sector is conducive to promoting sustainable development. Taking 30 provinces of China as case studies, this study not only examined the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic development in the service sector by adopting Tapio decoupling elasticity model but it also explored the driving factors affecting the changes of carbon emissions of the service sector at different stages by using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index. The main results are as follows. First, the rapid development of the service sector inevitably consumed a large number of energies, thus generating a deal of carbon emissions in China. Second, the majority of provinces have achieved a weak decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic development in the service sector during the four Five-Year Plans. Third, although the inhibiting effect of energy efficiency and energy structure saw a fluctuant growth trend, the provincial average accumulative reduction of carbon emissions was still smaller than that of the industry scale.