The carbon emissions level of China's service industry: an analysis of characteristics and influencing factors

Carbon emissions in the service industry play a significant role in sustainable development due to the increasing amount of carbon emissions. This study calculated the carbon emissions level of the service industry and its sub-industries in each province of China (i.e., transport, storage and post, wholesale, retail trade and hotel, restaurants; and other services). The influencing factors of the provincial service industry's carbon emissions were investigated using a spatial econometric model. The results are as follows: In general, the carbon emissions of China's service industry showed a rapid growth trend, rising from 382.45 million tons in 2003 to 1,406.46 million tons in 2016, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 11%, surpassing the average annual growth rate of the economy in the same period. In terms of the spatial characteristics, the carbon emissions of the service industry in China's coastal areas are higher than those in its inland areas. Additionally, carbon emissions in the central and western regions are currently low but are growing rapidly. In terms of the internal composition of the service industry, transport, storage and post, wholesale, retail trade, and hotel and restaurants are major sources of carbon emissions, accounting for nearly 80% of all emissions. Among them, transport, storage, and post account for nearly 60% of the total. There is an environmental Kuznets effect on the carbon emissions of the service industry, and technical progress will be required to reduce carbon emissions. While traditional urbanization is marked by coal-based energy consumption, and the service industry is dominated by traditional services that increase carbon emissions, the environmental regulations have actually been shown to also increase carbon emissions due to failure to enforce such regulation. The hypothesis of a pollution shelter from Foreign direct investment (FDI) was also not confirmed. The average spatial Moran index of carbon emissions from the service industry is 0.1381, which shows there is a strong positive spatial correlation in the service industry's carbon emissions.