Impact of demographic dynamics on CO2 emissions in Sichuan,China

Global climate change is one of the major environmental issues faced by humans.Existing evidence indicates that the anthropogenic push for a rise in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases(GHGs)(particularly CO2)has been a primary cause for global warming.Aside from economic and teclinological factors,demographic dynamics(including human consumption in a broad demographic sense)has been a major driver for CO2emissions.In this paper,we performed both nonlinear regression analysis(based on the STIRPAT model)and gray correlation degree analysis(based on gray system theory)on the impact of demographic dynamics on CO2emissions.Our results reveal that CO2emissions are positively correlated with population size and GDP per capita and negatively correlated with energy intensity.We also show that gray correlation degree with CO2emissions for five variables(i.e.,household consumption,urbanization rate,household size,population aging rate,population size)varies substantially:household consumption>urbanization rate>household size>population aging rate>population size,with household consumption being the highest,and population size the lowest.To mitigate the impact of demographic dynamics on CO2emissions,it is of vital significance to nurture people’s awareness of sustainable consumption and to adhere to current population control policies.