Abstract: Based on the perspectives of production and consumption, the intrinsic relationship between per capita GDP and CO₂ emissions per unit GDP has been analyzed empirically. The panel unit root and co-integration property of per capita GDP and CO₂ emissions per unit GDP in 44 countries during 1990-2004 were firstly analyzed. It shows that the panel data is consistent with the general regression model. Then, the CO₂ environmental Kuznets curves (EKC) were simulated, and the simulation results indicate that whether it is production- or consumption-based CO₂ emission, the income-emission curve displays an inverted-U shape, which is conformed to the EKC. For most developing countries, the consumption-based CO₂ emission is significantly lower than the production-based CO₂ emission, indicating the net export of CO₂ emission embodied in the international trade, which has brought great challenges to the statistic system of CO₂ emissions only based on production perspective. Finally, based on the analysis of the CO₂ EKC, some suggestions for climate change mitigation and adaptation in China were put forward.

Key words: production-based CO₂ emission, consumption-based CO₂ emission, international trade, panel data, environmental Kuznets curve