Decoupling effect and socioeconomic drivers of energy consumption: A case study of the top five urban agglomerations in China

The sustainability of energy consumption in urban agglomerations has become a growing concern. This study investigates the decoupling effect and socioeconomic factors of energy consumption in the top five urban agglomerations in China from 2011 to 2020. First, the decoupling relationship between energy consumption and economic development was assessed. Subsequently, the logarithmic mean Divisia index method was used to decompose the change of energy consumption into five factors. The main findings show the following: (1) The decoupling status of the five major urban agglomerations was unstable during the whole period, and expansive negative decoupling was prominent in five urban agglomerations. (2) The main factors that contributed to the energy consumption growth were investment effect (ΔCI), energy intensity effect (ΔCEI), per urban population gross domestic product effect (ΔCPG), and urbanization rate effect (ΔCUR), while the only factor that hindered energy consumption growth was investment population support coefficient effect (ΔCIP). Finally, the policy recommendations aim to help the Chinese policymakers and practitioners achieve a win–win balance between energy-saving and economic growth in the Chinese context, such as promoting low-carbon, economic, and green urban investment construction modes, reducing energy intensity, and promoting urbanization in an orderly manner.