Title: Structural change towards reducing carbon emission intensity in OECD countries

Authors: Thi Hoang Mai Bui; Quang Canh Le

Addresses: Academy of Policy and Development, An Khanh, Hanoi, Vietnam ' Institute for Sustainable Development, National Economics University, 207 Giai Phong Rd., Bach Mai, Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract: This study employs decomposition and optimal structure analyses to investigate the role of structural changes in gross domestic product in reducing carbon emission intensity in OECD countries. Empirical results indicate that structural changes are strongly correlated with changes in aggregate emission intensity across the sampled countries. A solution to the optimal economic structure implies that if countries with environmentally unfriendly GDP structures had optimised their economic structure, their aggregate emission intensity would have been significantly lower than that of other countries. The paper contributes to the literature by 1) proposing an approach to derive optimal economic structure in evaluating the role of GDP structural change on the abatement process; 2) figuring out the potential contribution of structural change to make the emission reduction process more effective. These empirical results shed light on making industrial policies for emission-mitigating targets.

Keywords: decomposition; structural change; carbon emission intensity; optimal economic structure; OECD countries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEE.2026.155869

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics, 2026 Vol.16 No.3, pp.272 - 294

Accepted: 08 Mar 2026
Published online: 24 Aug 2026 *

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