transportation carbon emissions

spatial non-equilibrium

solidification effect

Dagum Gini coefficient

Kernel density function

Markov chains

Atmospherical pollution control

Climate changes

Environmental management

It is of great significance to understand the spatial non-equilibrium and the solidification degree of transportation carbon emissions, so that differentiated measures can be taken to reduce transportation carbon emissions. Based on China’s provincial data from 2005 to 2015, this article uses the Dagum Gini coefficient to decompose the spatial non-equilibrium of per capita transportation carbon emissions from static viewpoint. The results indicate that the overall spatial non-equilibrium shows a significant downward trend; the intensity of transvariation has had an increased contribution rate year by year since 2008, and replaces the inter-regional differences as the main source of the overall spatial nonequilibrium. Next, Kernel density estimation is employed to analyze the evolution laws of spatial non-equilibrium from dynamic viewpoint. The results show that the per capita transportation carbon emissions in the eastern region are successively higher than those at the national level, and in other regions. Meanwhile, some provinces are concentrated at a low level, while others at a high level. Finally, Markov chains approach is applied to identify the solidification effect of the spatial non-equilibrium. The results indicate that the effect is obvious and the state transitions occur only between adjacent types. Moreover, the solidification effects of the provinces with higher per capita transportation carbon emissions are stronger than those provinces with a lower level.