Abstract
<jats:p>As the world&apos;s largest carbon emitter, China faces increasing pressure to reduce emissions from its construction sector, which is highly energy-intensive and produces substantial carbon emissions. However, existing studies primarily evaluate economy-wide carbon pricing policies or uniform carbon tax schemes, while limited attention has been paid to sector-specific carbon taxation under different economic growth scenarios. To address this gap, this study develops a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model incorporating a sector-specific carbon tax module for China&apos;s construction sector. The model simulates multiple carbon tax scenarios under alternative economic growth pathways to investigate the dynamic interactions among economic growth, energy consumption, and carbon emissions and to identify an optimal carbon tax that balances economic development and carbon peaking. The simulation results indicate that increasing carbon tax rates significantly reduce fossil energy consumption and carbon emissions while imposing short-term economic costs on the construction sector. A carbon tax of 35 yuan/t achieves the most desirable trade-off, enabling the construction sector to meet its carbon-peaking target around 2030 while maintaining relatively stable economic growth. Higher tax rates generate greater emission reductions but lead to disproportionately larger declines in sectoral output and factor inputs. This study extends the literature by evaluating sector-specific carbon taxation within a CGE framework under heterogeneous economic growth scenarios. The findings provide quantitative evidence for designing dynamic carbon pricing policies in the construction sector and offer practical policy implications for balancing economic development with long-term decarbonization objectives in China and other developing economies.</jats:p>