Accounting and drivers of carbon emission from cultivated land utilization in Northeast China

Abstract

With the continuous development of China's society and economy, the breadth and depth of cultivated land resources development and utilization have been continuously expanded, while the production efficiency and scale of cultivated land gradually have been improved. There were rapidly increases of carbon emission induced from cultivated land management, such as the agricultural inputs and energy consumptions. Taking carbon emission from cultivated land utilization in Northeast China as the research object, we determined the carbon emission accounting framework system according to the life cycle method. Based on estimation results of carbon emissions from 1979 to 2015 in Northeast China, the driver factor system affecting agricultural carbon emissions was constructed using logarithmic mean Divisia index model and the influence mechanism of cultivated land carbon emissions in Northeast China was deeply explored. The results showed that total carbon emission from cultivated land utilization in 2015 was 21.9% higher than that in 1979 and carbon emission intensity in 2015 was 1.54 t·hm^-2 lower than that in 1979. Soil management and agricultural inputs were the main sources of carbon emissions from cultivated land accounting for 83.6% of the total carbon emissions. The increases of land productivity and science and technology fund allocation rate were found to be the driving factors of carbon emission from cultivated land utilization. On the contrary, the reduction of input/output ratio, cultivated land area per capita and intensity of science and technology investment decreased carbon emission from cultivated land utilization.

Keywords: carbon emission; life cycle; logarithmic mean Divisia index model.; cultivated land use.