With the further aggravation of global warming and the increasingly serious problems of ecological environment, the construction of low-carbon cities has become an inevitable choice for the global response to climate change and the sustainable development of economy and society. In order to understand the basic situation of China’s low-carbon cities more specifically, this paper selects countries with different urbanization rates to carry out benchmarking analysis with China, hoping to draw on the experience of other countries from the national level through multi-dimensional comparison, and guide the direction of China’s future urban development. Firstly, this paper selects the basic indicators such as the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions, per capita carbon emissions and carbon emissions per unit GDP of each country; Secondly, it compares the proportion of coal in energy and other indicators, and analyzes the energy structure of each country in depth; Thirdly, it compares the trend of carbon emissions in each country among 1990-2017. Finally, in order to reflect the carbon emission in the development of urbanization, this paper uses the “urbanization carbon emission index”, which is the ratio of per capita carbon emission and urbanization rate, to show the relationship between the degree of urbanization and carbon emission. Through benchmarking analysis, we can more clearly understand the overall trend of low-carbon city construction in different countries, recognize the gap between China and other countries, and better guide the development of low-carbon cities in China in the future.
Low-Carbon City Policy Databook: 72 Policy Recommendations for Chinese Cities from the Benchmarking and Energy Savings Tool for Low Carbon Cities