The global carbon neutrality target and policy context of China’s high-quality development cause pressure to and are the driving forces of the transformation and development of resource-based cities. The current paper constructs an indicator system based on the ecological niche theory to measure and spatiotemporally analyze the ecological niche for the high-quality development in 115 resource-based cities in China. The results show that, firstly, the high-quality-development niches in resource-based cities are clustered on a medium level. Secondly, the differences in the sub-dimensional niche breadths are greater overall, with minor differences in the niche of resource and energy and considerable differences in the niche of innovation potential. Thirdly, we characterize the overall development imbalance following a more pronounced temporal evolution from the low to high niche over the decade. Based on the results, recommendations are made for resource-based cities to pinpoint and classify their strategies. The exploration of the comparative status, evolutionary dynamics and development paths for high-quality development in Chinese resource-based cities in this paper provides a systematic reference for building a new pattern of synergistic and sustainable development under the new normal of China’s economy.

The urban development in the Yellow River basin (YRB) varies widely. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a development path that fits the characteristics of each city to achieve high-quality development. The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of how to choose a characteristic path for high-quality development and clarify its suitability for YRB cities. Firstly, based on data from 50 YRB cities from 2011 to 2020, the suitability evaluation was carried out from the perspective of an ecological niche, followed by the measurement of sub-dimensional niche breadth and overlap. The results confirmed the great diversity of development between cities and the intense competition for resources. Then, based on the classification approach using the k-means method, this study proposes a method for selecting a suitable path for high-quality development. It classifies the suitable paths into 3 major types with 7 minor types and recommends policies for the suitable paths for YRB cities. The systematic thinking and specific path selection method for the high-quality development of YRB cities is not only of practical significance for implementing city classification strategies but also provides a reference for the sustainable development of basin cities in other countries.

To achieve China’s “Double Carbon” target, each region needs a fair, effective, and economically viable quota allocation scheme. Therefore, this paper takes the industrial sector of Henan Province as an example and explores the allocation scheme of peak carbon emissions among its 40 subsectors. The results show that: (1) The predicted total quotas for the industrial sector in Henan Province at carbon peak is 163.74 Mt. (2) The reallocation scheme proposed in this paper takes into account fairness, efficiency, and economy principles, and is the most feasible scheme. (3) Transferring quotas to subsectors with lower carbon intensity and higher marginal abatement costs can help improve the overall efficiency of the allocation scheme. We innovatively propose a scenario prediction method for the total quotas and systematically quantitatively evaluates the fairness and economy of the scheme. Policy suggestions are also made for implementing the scheme. The purpose of this paper is to solve how to formulate a fair and effective quota allocation scheme and clarify its feasibility. By quantitatively determining a quota allocation scheme that meets the actual development needs of the industrial sector in Henan Province, this paper also provides a reference for other regions to achieve fair and effective quota allocation.