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Abstract With the increase in energy consumption in China, the influential factors and contributions to such increase have received more attention. In this paper, the decomposition of energy consumption and energy intensity in China from 1995 to 2015 was conducted by using a complete decomposition model. This study focuses on regional difference, which is not in line with the existing studies. The decomposition results indicate that the economic growth has a significant driving effect on the energy consumption, while the energy intensity effect reduces the growth of the total energy consumption. The structural effect plays a negative role but has less effect on the growth of the energy consumption. The contribution rate on the growth of the energy consumption in the eastern region gradually decreases. However, in the western region it grows fast and even exceeds that of the eastern region to become the highest energy consumption area in China in 2010–2015. The energy intensity declines substantially in China. It is mainly due to the improvement of regional energy efficiency and negligible contribution from the structural effect. In conclusion, the energy consumption and energy intensity in China follow different forms in different regions. Therefore, the application of differentiated regional energy policies is preferable over a single national energy policy. Highlights • The changes in energy consumption at the regional level were decomposed. • The influential factors of energy consumption variation and energy intensity variation in China was studied. • The coupling relationship between China's economic growth and energy consumption growth has gradually weakened. • We find that the western region become the area of China with the highest energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate nexus among China's real output, energy consumption, and carbon emissions from 1971 to 2014. We use a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to examine asymmetric transfer effects among the variables. The findings indicate that the asymmetry effect exists in the relationship among the variables in both the long and short term. Positive and negative shocks of energy consumption and carbon emissions have shown different effects on real output in sign and magnitude. Furthermore, energy consumption and carbon emissions have shown different patterns of influence on real output. In the long run, the decrease in carbon emissions has no significant impact on real output, while the decrease in energy consumption will lead to an increase in real output. In the short run, the negative shock in energy consumption in the previous periods is positively linked to real output, it means the decrease in energy consumption will lead to a decrease in real output. If the government proposes energy-conservation policies, the economic growth will be hampered in the short term but promoted in the long term. The results of this study have clear and important implications for devising energy-conservation and emission-reduction policies in China. • We empirically investigate the asymmetric nexus among real output, carbon emissions and energy consumption in China. • The bounds tests suggest presence of long-run cointegration relationship among the variables. • Asymmetry effect is found in the variable's nexus in both long-run and short-run. • Energy consumption and carbon emissions have shown different patterns of influence on the real output. • Government should be very cautious to set energy-conservation and emission-reduction policies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]