A combined framework for carbon emissions prediction integrating online search attention

As CO2 emissions continue to rise, the problem of global warming is becoming increasingly serious. It is important to provide a robust management decision-making basis for the reductions of carbon emissions worldwide by predicting carbon emissions accurately. However, affected by various factors, the prediction of carbon emissions is challenging due to its nonlinear and nonstationary characteristics. Thus, we propose a combination forecast model, named CEEMDAN-GWO-SVR, which incorporates multiple features to predict trends in China’s carbon emissions. First, the impact of online search attention and public health emergencies are considered in carbon emissions prediction. Since the impact of different variables on carbon emissions is lagged, the grey relational degree is used to identify the appropriate lag series. Second, irrelevant features are eliminated through RFECV. To address the issue of feature redundancy of online search attention, we propose a dimensionality reduction method based on keyword classification. Finally, to evaluate the features of the proposed framework, four evaluation indicators are tested in multiple machine learning models. The best-performed model (SVR) is optimized by CEEMDAN and GWO to enhance prediction accuracy. The empirical results indicate that the proposed framework maintains good performance in both multi-scenario and multi-step prediction.