Abstract
The power battery industry in China is
experiencing rapid development, with the swift expansion of capacity
potentially posing challenges to environmental protection and carbon reduction.
Using the development plan of the power battery industry in Yibin City as a
case study, this paper employs the Material Flow Analysis and Tapio decoupling
model to deeply explore the economic benefits and environmental burdens brought
by the development of power battery key industry under scenarios, proposing
optimized pathways to promote low-carbon industrial development. The results
indicate that the industrial output value can increase from 92.1 billion CNY in
the baseline year to 382.6 billion CNY in 2030, with carbon emissions rising
from 0.55 million tons to 2.32 million tons. The adjustment of product
structure has limited effect on carbon reduction in the power battery industry.
In the short term, optimizing the energy structure has greater carbon reduction
potential than improving energy efficiency, and clean energy utilization has
the highest marginal carbon reduction effect. Implementing measures to optimize
the energy structure and improve efficiency simultaneously can achieve weak
decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions, though strong decoupling is
challenging to attain. The proportion of local renewable energy generation also
impacts the low-carbon capability of the industry, suggesting that regions with
abundant renewable energy should be prioritized for industrial layout.
Promoting the decoupling of economic growth and environmental impact in the
power battery industry can be facilitated by supporting environmental
governance infrastructure, driving the green energy transition, and encouraging
low-carbon technological innovation.
JEL classification numbers: F062.2
Keywords: Power battery, Scenario analysis,
Material flow, Economic environmental impact, Carbon emissions.