Does technical progress curb India's carbon emissions? A novel approach of combining extended index decomposition analysis and production-theoretical decomposition analysis.

Technical progress is one of the best strategies to meet the dual challenges of economic growth and carbon emissions control in developing countries such as India. In this research, an empirical study of India's carbon emissions was conducted to understand the effects of various technical factors on total and industrial carbon emission intensity. Ten driving factors of carbon emission in 56 sectors of India are decomposed by combining Index Decomposition Analysis (IDA) and Production-theoretical Decomposition Analysis (PDA). The results reveal that (i) the pure carbon-reduction technical efficiency and the scale efficiency of carbon-reduction technology in India have not improved, and the technical progress of pure carbon-reduction and the scale efficiency of carbon-reduction technology has played a positive role in carbon emission. (ii) The scale efficiency of pure energy-saving technology progress is the most important factor in restraining carbon emissions, and pure energy-saving technology progress has had an overall promoting effect. However, the effect of energy-saving technology progress is not as effective as the scale efficiency through improving energy technology progress. (iii) Per capita value added and population size are powerful factors that promote carbon emissions. This study also makes a targeted analysis of the driving factors of carbon emissions in different industries, which provide a reference for the process of carbon-reduction in different industries.