Bigger cities better climate? Results from an analysis of urban areas in China

Cheng, Lian; Mi, Zhifu; Sudmant, Andrew; Coffman, D’Maris

doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2022.105872

Cited by 46 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The results themselves do not shed light on whether this striking anomaly is a result of particularly emissions-efficient growth in China's cities or the result of an explicit policy to move high-emissions industries away from cities, trading-off urban and non-urban CO 2 emissions 40 . Cheng et al, 41 came to a similar conclusion using a traditional version of the Kaya identity and a cross-section of Chinese cities for the period 2000-2016.…”

Section: National Emissions Impact Of Urbanisationmentioning

confidence: 66%

On the impact of urbanisation on CO2 emissions

2023

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We use a globally consistent, time-resolved data set of CO2 emission proxies to quantify urban CO2 emissions in 91 cities. We decompose emission trends into contributions from changes in urban extent, population density and per capita emission. We find that urban CO2 emissions are increasing everywhere but that the dominant contributors differ according to development level. A cluster analysis of factors shows that developing countries were dominated by cities with the rapid area and per capita CO2 emissions increases. Cities in the developed world, by contrast, show slow area and per capita CO2 emissions growth. China is an important intermediate case with rapid urban area growth combined with slower per capita CO2 emissions growth. Urban per capita emissions are often lower than their national average for many developed countries, suggesting that urbanisation may reduce overall emissions. However, trends in per capita urban emissions are higher than their national equivalent almost everywhere, suggesting that urbanisation will become a more serious problem in the future. An important exception is China, whose per capita urban emissions are growing more slowly than the national value. We also see a negative correlation between trends in population density and per capita CO2 emissions, highlighting a strong role for densification as a tool to reduce CO2 emissions.

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Section: National Emissions Impact Of Urbanisationmentioning

confidence: 66%

On the impact of urbanisation on CO2 emissions

2023

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“…Other authors' studies extended the original Kaya identity by including more factors or breaking these factors down into components [29]. The urban Kaya identity is often used by adding urbanisation to the original Kaya identity [46]. In our study, the extended urban Kaya identity can be seen in Formula ( 5).…”

Section: Decomposition Of the Ghg Emissions Using The Extended Urban ...mentioning

confidence: 89%

The Impact of Economic Growth and Urbanisation on Environmental Degradation in the Baltic States: An Extended Kaya Identity

Makutėnienė,

Staugaitis,

Makutėnas

et al. 2023

Agriculture

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The main aim of this article is to empirically examine the impact of economic growth and urbanisation on environmental degradation, as well as the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in three Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) from 2000 to 2020. The main Kaya identity and the extended urban Kaya identity models are applied within the analysis. The multiple regression analysis made it possible to assess the influence of urbanisation and other factors on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the studied countries, as well as test the hypothesis of the inverted U-shaped EKC. The main finding reveals that GDP per capita growth has the largest and increasing effect on GHG emissions in all three countries. It was also found that changes in population in urban areas in Lithuania and Latvia reduced the amount of GHG until 2020, while in Estonia, the growing urban population greatly contributed to increasing GHG emissions. As a result, processes related to urbanisation have not yet had a significant impact on environmental quality in Lithuania and Latvia. Meanwhile, in Estonia, this is a significant factor that policymakers need to focus on when solving environmental pollution reduction problems. The hypothesis of the EKC was mostly supported when analysing GHG emissions in Lithuania and Estonia and using GDP per capita as an indicator for economic growth. On the other hand, it was found that the impact of the urbanisation rate on GHG emissions is not curved, yet there is some evidence that in Estonia, a growing urbanisation rate is related to diminishing GHG emissions, according to the multiple regression analysis. The results of the study showed that policymakers should consider economic growth and, especially in Estonia, urbanisation when solving problems related to environmental degradation.

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“…Regression analysis has been widely used in literature to understand the main drivers of emissions at the urban scale [ 10 , [23] , [24] , [25] ] or to assess the policies' impacts to improve energy efficiency [ 20 , 26 ]. The results of energy policies are influenced by a variety of factors that act simultaneously, such as market forces, technological change, behaviours, and assessing the effectiveness of such policies is a complex task.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are European cities achieving emission reduction commitments? A comparative analysis under the Covenant of Mayors initiative

Lucchitta,

Palermo,

Melica

et al. 2024

Heliyon

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Bigger cities better climate? Results from an analysis of urban areas in China

Cited by 46 publications

References 29 publications

On the impact of urbanisation on CO2 emissions

On the impact of urbanisation on CO2 emissions

The Impact of Economic Growth and Urbanisation on Environmental Degradation in the Baltic States: An Extended Kaya Identity

Are European cities achieving emission reduction commitments? A comparative analysis under the Covenant of Mayors initiative

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