Social and economic driving forces of recent CO₂ emissions in three major BRICS economies

The study examines the driving factors of total energy-related and power-related (electricity-heat) CO₂ emissions for China, India and Brazil, three BRICS countries with vital economic and demographic dynamics. The paper applies decoupling and decomposition analysis in order to investigate the influence of those factors that are prominent in the contemporary literature as well as factors reflecting important social and demographic dynamics which affect the ecological footprint of society. Household size and number of households are introduced into the relevant literature for the first time to reflect demographic factors with substantially different trends from population size, the predominant factor in the existing literature. This novelty together with the simultaneous application of decoupling and decomposition analysis adds importance to the findings of the study, which covers the period of 2000-2018. The results show that increasing income and population significantly enlarge the energy-related CO₂ emissions. Household size, number of households and income effects are crucial in the increase of power-related CO₂ emissions. The crucial factor for the decrease of energy-related CO₂ emissions is the decreasing energy intensity, while for power-related CO₂ emissions it is the emission factor effect reflecting the recent shift towards less carbon intensive energy types.