Decoupling livestock and poultry pollution emissions from industrial development: A step towards reducing environmental emissions.

China has implemented policies like Leading areas for Agricultural Green Development (LAGD) to mitigate livestock and poultry farming pollution while promoting industry growth. However, it remains uncertain whether LAGDs have successfully balanced emission reduction with stable development. This study examines 165 LAGDs to analyze changes in emissions, assess the decoupling of emission reduction from output value, and identify influencing factors. Findings reveal that emissions from livestock and poultry in LAGDs initially increased and then decreased between 2010 and 2019. Cattle were responsible for over 40% of fecal emissions, and pigs for more than 20%. Additionally, pigs contributed to over 61% of urine emissions. From 2010 to 2014, increases in chemical oxygen demand were mainly due to pigs and cattle. Total nitrogen levels were significantly impacted by cattle, while pigs were affected by total phosphorus. From 2014 to 2019, reductions in emissions were largely attributed to a decrease in pig-related pollutants. The decoupling status shifted from strong to weak and then back to strong between 2014 and 2019. Production efficiency played a crucial role in reducing emissions, while changes in industrial structure moved from supporting to hindering this reduction. Economic development was a primary factor in driving these changes. Standard emissions in Chinese regions showed a rising and then declining trend from 2010 to 2019. The Northeast and Northwest regions of China demonstrated emission trends that were in sync with the growth in rural income. This study offers insights into the successes and challenges of LAGDs in achieving a balance between reduced emissions and development, using quantitative analysis. The findings are instrumental in informing policies for a sustainable livestock and poultry industry. Recommendations include evaluating coordinated approaches to pollution reduction and industrial growth, setting decoupling goals, designing policies based on influential factors, conducting regional assessments of livestock and poultry demand, and implementing region-specific strategies.

Decoupling relationship analysis between urbanization and carbon emissions in 33 African countries.

Global warming is a serious environmental problem facing the world in the 21st century. Carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas, is the driver of global warming. Rapid urbanization has not only improved the quality of life, but has also led to radical increases in carbon emissions. In order to achieve a win-win situation between urbanization and carbon emissions reduction, research on the decoupling relationship between urbanization and carbon emissions has great significance, especially in Africa, where urbanization is advancing rapidly. This study explores the decoupling relationship between different types of urbanization (demographic urbanization, spatial urbanization, economic urbanization, social urbanization) and carbon emissions in Africa. The results show that the decoupling relationship between demographic urbanization and carbon emissions is similar to the decoupling relationship between spatial urbanization and carbon emissions. The decoupling relationship between economic urbanization and carbon emissions is similar to the decoupling relationship between social urbanization and carbon emissions. Only 4 of the 33 African countries studied have achieved the decoupling of four types of urbanization from carbon emissions in the long period (2000-2018). These findings can provide some guidance for the sustainable development of Africa.

A three-step strategy for decoupling economic growth from carbon emission: Empirical evidences from 133 countries.

To decouple the economic growth and carbon emission has been considered imperative to promote low-carbon economy. Nevertheless, previous studies on decoupling analysis between economic growth and carbon emission were contextualized merely in individual countries rather than the globe, which are insufficient for developing the low-carbon economy as a global target. Carbon intensity (CI), carbon emission per capita (CP), and total carbon emission (TC) serve as three important indicators of the status of regional carbon emission, but only decoupling economic growth from TC was analyzed in previous studies. To close the two gaps, this study aims to investigate the global decoupling statuses of economic growth from not only TC but also CI and CP by using Tapio decoupling index. The decoupling statuses of 133 countries and income-level groups to which they are classified are identified using the data from 2000 to 2014. According to the results, it is observed that economic growth decouples from CI, CP, and TC in sequential order, which is called three-step decoupling. In the period, countries whose economic growth having decoupled from CI, CP, and TC, account for 74%, 35% and 21% respectively. Higher income-level group has the larger proportion of countries having reached their decoupling statuses. These findings may serve as valuable references for policy-makers to understand the current decoupling statuses and make three-step strategies if necessary towards the global low-carbon economy.