LAUSR

In recent years, developing countries, especially resource-dependent regions, have been facing the paradox of ensuring both emissions reduction and economic development. Thus, there is a strong political desire to forecast carbon emissions reduction potential and the best way to achieve it. This study constructs a methodology to assess carbon reduction potential in a resource-dependent region. The Simulated Annealing Programming algorithm and the Genetic algorithm were introduced to create a prediction model and an optimized regional carbon intensity model, respectively. Shanxi Province in China, a typical resource-dependent area, is selected for the empirical study. Regional statistical data are collected from 1990 to 2015. The results show that the carbon intensity of Shanxi Province could drop 18.78% by 2020. This potential exceeds the 18% expectation of the Chinese Government in its ‘13th Five-Year Work Plan’ for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Moreover, the carbon intensity of the province could be further reduced by 0.97 t per 10,000 yuan GDP. The study suggests that the carbon emissions of a resource-dependent region can be reduced in the following ways; promoting economic restructuring, upgrading coal supply-side reform, perfecting the self-regulation of coal prices, accelerating the technical innovation of the coal industry, and establishing a flexible mechanism for reducing emissions.