Grey relation analysis of carbon dioxide emissions from industrial production and energy uses in Taiwan

This study aims to identify key factors affecting energy-induced CO2 emissi on changes from 34 industries in Taiwan, in order to have an integrated und erstanding of the industrial environmental-economic-energy performance and to provide insights for relevant policy making in Taiwan. Grey relation ana lysis was used in this paper to analyse how energy-induced CO2 emissions fr om 34 industries in Taiwan are affected by the factors: production, total e nergy consumption, coal, oil, gas and electricity uses. The methodology was modified by laking account of the evolutionary direction among relevant fa ctors. Furthermore, tests of sensitivity and stability which are seldom dis cussed in most grey relation analyses, were conducted to ensure the reliabi lity of outcomes. We found that rho values ranging from 0.3 to 0.5 are appr opriate, and the analytical results with rho value of 0.5 offer moderate di stinguishing effects and good stability. Results indicate that industrial production has the closest relationship wi th aggregate CO2 emission changes; electricity consumption the second in im portance. it reveals that the economy in Taiwan relied heavily on CO2 inten sive industries, and that electricity consumption had become more important for economic growth. The relational order of fuels is electricity, coal, o il then gas, accordant with their CO2 emission coefficients in Taiwan. The positive relational grade of aggregate production implies that the aggregat e industrial CO2 intensity tended to decline. The total energy consumption had a smaller and negative relational grade with CO2 emissions, and implies an improvement on aggregate energy intensity while the CO2 emission coeffi cient increased. For industries with significant influence on CO2 emissions , the fetal energy consumption had the largest relational grades. It is imp ortant to reduce the energy intensity of these industries. Nevertheless, it is also critical to decouple energy consumption and production to reduce t he impacts of CO2 mitigation on economic growth. (C) 1999 Academic Press.