Research on Urban Ecological Civilization and Low-Carbon Economy in the Yangtze River Delta

Abstract

In the new historical arena, to develop urban ecological civilization is of great importance to promote the urban comprehensive competence for now and in the future, and remains as a developmental trend of the urban modern civilization. The paper, aiming at the Yangtze River Delta (“YRD”), a place of strategic importance in China’s economy, first puts forward many challenges that the urban ecological civilization construction is exposed to during the rapid economic growth in the process of industrialization, including severe issues in resources and the environment, the extensive economic growth, and the high-carbon lifestyle; later, based on the analysis of the relation between the low-carbon economy and the ecological civilization construction, it suggests to promote the urban ecological civilization construction in cities of YRD and to realize the sustainable development by actively developing the low-carbon economy featured in low energy consumption, low emission, and low pollution.

Chinese-Style Fiscal Decentralization, Ecological Attention of Government, and Regional Energy Intensity

“…In recent years, the construction of an ecological civilization has been frequently mentioned [88,89] in government work reports of some ecologically fragile or seriously environmentally damaged areas, such as Tibet, Qinghai, and Ningxia. Governments in eastern coastal regions have given their full attention to the promotion of fiscal policies for energy conservation and emission reduction behaviors and incentives, hoping to break through the limitations of energy scarcity to regional development by improving energy efficiency and governing the ecological and environmental damage due to previous extensive development [90,91]. Therefore, the more that local governments' fiscal governance preferences tend towards to ecological environment protection, and local governments become committed to regional energy utilization efficiency, the greater the policy-gripper tool effect that local governments have on ecological environmental protection and regional energy intensity [92].…”