Spatiotemporal Variation and Development Stage of CO2 Emissions of Urban Agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Abstract

As the world’s largest developing country, China has played an important role in the achievement of the global CO2 emissions mitigation goal. The monitoring and analysis of CO2 emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) urban agglomerations is strategic to the carbon peak and carbon neutrality in China. In this paper, we revealed the spatial and temporal variations of CO2 emissions in Cheng-Yu urban agglomeration (CY-UA), Yangtze River Middle-Reach urban agglomeration (YRMR-UA), and Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRD-UA) in YREB and investigated the carbon emission development stage of YREB urban agglomerations. Particularly, a carbon emission development stage framework that considered the relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions was built based on Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKCs). Meanwhile, multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) was used to analyze the impact of different influencing factors, including population (POP), GDP per capita (GDPPC), the proportion of secondary industry (SI), carbon emission intensity (CI), and urbanization (UR), on the CO2 emissions of three urban agglomerations. The results illustrate the following: (1) The CO2 emissions of YREB urban agglomerations decreased, with YRD-UA having the highest CO2 emissions among the three urban agglomerations and contributing 41.87% of YREB CO2 emissions in 2017. (2) CY-UA, YRMR-UA, and YRD-UA reached the CO2 emissions peak in 2012, 2011, and 2020, respectively, all of which are at the low-carbon stage. (3) POP and GDPPC show the greatest impact on the CO2 emissions of the three YREB urban agglomerations.

The Impact of Port Total Factor Productivity on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Port Cities: Evidence from the Yangtze River Ports

“…Some studies have focused on the temporal and spatial variations in urban CO 2 emissions themselves, such as those by Lu et al [37] and Chen et al [38]. Lu, Lv, Wang, and Wei [37] found a declining trend in CO 2 emissions in the urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.…”

“…Some studies have focused on the temporal and spatial variations in urban CO 2 emissions themselves, such as those by Lu et al [37] and Chen et al [38]. Lu, Lv, Wang, and Wei [37] found a declining trend in CO 2 emissions in the urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Chen, Tan, Mu, Wang, Chen, and He [38] focused on the synergistic relationship between pollution and carbon emissions, finding that the level of synergy between pollution control and carbon reduction in cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt is on the rise.…”

Multi-Scenario Prediction Analysis of Carbon Peak Based on STIRPAT Model-Take South-to-North Water Diversion Central Route Provinces and Cities as an Example

“…In summary, there is still some controversy among many scholars as to whether China can achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality on time, and there are some areas for improvement in the analysis of carbon peaking at the basin level [15]. This study uses the provinces and cities through which the South-to-North Water Diversion Project passes as the study area to analyze, build models, and carry out prediction analyses to provide the government with corresponding carbon peak strategies.…”

Study of the collaborative prevention and control mechanisms of ecological and environmental risks in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt

“…They proposed reversing the ecological fragility of the Yangtze River Basin through pollution control, ecological restoration, low carbon transformation, introduction of capital, and realization of the value of ecological services. Qikai Lu et al [ 10 ] measured carbon emissions in three urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and found that carbon emissions showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing from 2008 to 2017, with emissions decreasing significantly after 2017. He [ 11 ] pointed-out that provinces and cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt lacked management and policy regulations for collaborative governance, and constructed a diversified collaborative governance system from organization, value, market, cost, and benefits in order to integrate environmental governance and green development.…”