Socioeconomic drivers and mitigating strategies of volatile organic compounds emissions in China's industrial sector

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions are becoming an increasingly serious problem in China, but little is known about the industry-specific mitigating strategies of VOCs. Using the generalized Divisia index method (GDIM) and a panel data set of China's 30 provincial-level regions from 2008 to 2017, this study is the first to explore the socioeconomic drivers of industrial VOCs emission changes in China and its 30 provincial-level regions. The contributions of provincial factors to national VOCs emission changes are compared, and each effect from 30 provincial-level regions is analyzed in detail. The results show that China's industrial VOCs emission increase over 2008-2017 was largely driven by investment scale and output scale, which was offset by the emission intensity of output, the emission intensity of investment, investment efficiency, and energy intensity. Moreover, each effect greatly varies among China's 30 provincial-level regions. The investment scale in Shandong has the largest contribution to the increase of national industrial VOCs emissions while the emission intensity of energy in Ningxia has the least contribution. Accordingly, regional disparity should be considered for formulating the strategies in aspects of investment, energy, and technology for China's industrial sector to mitigate VOCs emissions.