Authors: Zhencheng Xing, Jigan Wang, Kuishuang Feng, Klaus Hubacek.

Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production.

Abstract

China's strategy of greening industrial development aims to decouple industrial growth from industrial wastewater discharges (IWDs). This study combines decoupling analysis, decomposition analysis, and attribution analysis to support the goal. First, the decoupling analysis is employed to explore the decoupling states between industrial growth and IWDs in China, as well as across 30 provinces, from 2000 to 2015. Next, the decomposition analysis focusing on the change in industrial wastewater discharge intensity (IWDI) is performed to reveal the factors influencing the decoupling trends. Then, the attribution analysis is used to attribute the contributions of these factors to different regions. Our decoupling results indicate an increasing decoupling trend between industrial output and IWDs in China in the past 15 years. Meanwhile, there is a witnessed convergence in decoupling degrees among provinces. Decomposition results reveal that the water intensity plays the dominant role in promoting decoupling, while the wastewater discharge coefficient negatively impacts decoupling before 2005 but then exhibits a promotion effect. Regional attribution results indicate provinces in South China have exerted more efforts in both of water saving and wastewater treatment during the study period. Water scarce provinces in North China performs better in the water saving, while more developed and water rich provinces in South China provinces performs better in wastewater treatment. This paper suggests targeted policy methods at province level.

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