scholarly journals Measurement of the Degree of Coordination in Regard to Carbon Emissions, Economic Development, and Environmental Protection in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1750
Author(s):  
Chenyu Lu ◽  
Dai Wang ◽  
Hengji Li ◽  
Wei Cheng ◽  
Xianglong Tang ◽  
...  

Driven by economic development, the dramatic increase in carbon emissions has led to global warming and a series of environmental problems. The question of how to ensure harmonized coordination between economic development, carbon emissions and environmental protection has become increasingly important. The conflicts between the use of energy and emission reductions in China have become more intense. It is an inevitable requirement for China’s sustainable development to promote a low-carbon circular economy and the simultaneous and coordinated development of carbon emissions, the economy and the environment. The present study took 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions directly under the Central Government) as the research objects (Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are not included in the study due to the lack of relevant data), and applied quantitative analysis methods, such as three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) models, coupling coordination degree models and spatial analysis models, to construct a measurement index system. On the basis of the measurement of its carbon emission efficiency, the level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection at both spatial and temporal dimensions was analyzed comprehensively in order to reveal its temporal and spatial characteristics. The conclusions are as follows: (1) China’s overall carbon emission efficiency displayed a gradual upward trend, although the overall level was not that high. Therefore, there is still much scope for further improvement. (2) The level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection showed a steady yet rising trend. All provinces reached different levels of coordination development, and there was no province that displayed a disorderly declining trend. However, the number of provinces that reached or went beyond the intermediate level of coordination development was quite limited. (3) The level of China’s coordination degree in regard to carbon emissions, economic development, and environmental protection displayed obvious spatial aggregation patterns at the provincial level, showing an apparent spatial dependence and heterogeneity. Over time, the level of spatial aggregation patterns in regard to coordination degree tended to weaken. Overall, the values were high in the eastern region and low in the western region, decreasing from the eastern coastal zone towards the western inland zone, thus demonstrating a contrasting east-west spatial distribution pattern.

Author(s):  
Yue Pan ◽  
Gangmin Weng ◽  
Conghui Li ◽  
Jianpu Li

To discuss the coupling coordination relationship among tourism carbon emissions, economic development and regional innovation it is not only necessary to realize the green development of tourism economy, but also great significance for the tourism industry to take a low-carbon path. Taking the 30 provinces of China for example, this paper calculated the tourism carbon emission efficiency based on the super-efficiency Slacks based measure and Data envelope analyse (SBM-DEA) model from 2007 to 2017, and on this basis, defined a compound system that consists of tourism carbon emissions, tourism economic development and tourism regional innovation. Further, the coupling coordination degree model and dynamic degree model were used to explore its spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of balanced development, and this paper distinguished the core influencing factors by Geodetector model. The results showed that (1) during the study period, the tourism carbon emission efficiency showed a reciprocating trend of first rising and then falling, mainly due to the change of pure technical efficiency. (2) The coupling coordination degree developed towards a good trend, while there were significant differences among provinces, showing a gradient distribution pattern of decreasing from east to west. Additionally, (3) the core driving factors varied over time, however, in general, the influence from high to low were as follows: technological innovation, economic development, urbanization, environmental pollution control, and industrial structure. Finally, some policy recommendations were put forward to further promote the coupling coordination degree.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0958305X2110539
Author(s):  
Zhenhua Xie ◽  
Xiangyu Teng ◽  
Fan-peng Liu ◽  
Yung-ho Chiu

China is the world's largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, but despite unbalanced growth among the eastern, central, and western regions, local financial expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection has increased from 255.1 billion yuan in 2011 to 582.5 billion yuan in 2018. This research thus introduces financial expenditure like a new input into a dynamic meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function to evaluate China's energy and carbon emission efficiency over that period of time. Different from previous studies, after considering financial expenditure we find that most provinces have narrowed their gap with the benchmark frontier, reflecting that increasing financial expenditure does help improve energy and carbon emission efficiency. The results highlight that most provinces should increase their financial expenditure on energy conservation and environmental protection, especially in the central and western regions, so as to narrow their technology gap with the eastern region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2722
Author(s):  
Shijian Wu ◽  
Kaili Zhang

Reducing carbon emissions and realizing green, circular, and low-carbon development is essential for high-quality economic development. Following the construction of a superefficiency SBM model and combining the panel data of three major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2003 to 2017, carbon emission efficiency was measured and analyzed. A spatial Durbin model (SDM) was incorporated to analyze the urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the impact of urbanization quality and foreign direct investment (FDI) on carbon emission efficiency. Finally, the SDM model was used to decompose the spillover effect. Generally, carbon emission efficiency in the three major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is low, with regional differences. FDI only has a positive impact on the carbon emissions of the Yangtze River Delta and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Furthermore, urbanization and population density have led to high levels of carbon emission in the region; however, the industrial structure and energy intensity factors have inhibited the improvement of regional carbon emission efficiency. Improving the quality of urbanization and trade structure is important to achieve energy conservation and emission reductions, which are pillars of sustainable economic development.


Author(s):  
Tijana Tufek-Memisevic ◽  
◽  
Zina Ruzdic ◽  

Maintaining a balance between economic development and carbon emissions reduction is an important part of low-carbon development in modern cities. At present, the positive effect of urban compactness on carbon emission efficiency has been demonstrated in large cities, but few studies have been carried out on small towns. Small towns are an important part of China’s urban system, accounting for 70% of the total population and 60% of the national GDP. Most small towns in China still promote economic growth and enhance the social welfare of residents by large-scale urban construction, which inevitably leads to urban expansion and high carbon emissions. How to reduce carbon emissions by optimising urban form while continuing with economic development and maintaining people’s welfare has become an important issue faced by small towns in China. To guide the low-carbon planning of small towns, it is necessary to understand the relationship between urban compactness and the economic benefit and socialwelfare levels associated with the carbon emissions in small towns. This study quantitatively analyse the relationship between urban compactness and carbon emission efficiency (including CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency) in small towns in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2008 to 2017. This study resulted in four main findings. (i) the expansion of urban scale had significantly improved the CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency; (ii) the compactness presented opposite effects on the CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency, compactness had a negative correlation with CO2 economic efficiency, and had a positive correlation with CO2 social efficiency; (ii) The CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency both show an upward trend over the period 2008 to 2017; (iv) The relationship between GDP and carbon emissions in small towns did not reach an ideal state, the economies of small towns in China are still strongly dependent on scale expansion.


Author(s):  
Jianjian He ◽  
Pengyan Zhang

The mechanism of interaction between economic development, industrial structure and anthropogenic carbon emissions has become one of the focuses of climate change research. In this investigation, Henan Province was studied as an example, wherein the calculation model of carbon emissions in the primary, secondary and tertiary economic sectors was built using the ArcGIS 10.1 software. The spatiotemporal difference of carbon emissions between 2006 and 2015 from the three sectors was studied. The relation between economic development and environmental protection is discussed, based on the construction of a coordination degree model. Conclusions drawn from this analysis are: (1) In 2015, China’s total carbon emissions reached 10,291.93 × 107 t and Henan’s carbon emissions accounted for 1.96% of China’s total carbon emissions. The total carbon emissions in Henan Province increased more than 25.00% between 2006 and 2015. (2) Carbon emissions from different economic sectors demonstrated varied patterns. The primary sector presented a gradual decreasing trend in carbon emission, while the secondary sector showed a fluctuating pattern and the tertiary sector had an inclining trend in carbon emission. (3) There are also disparities in the spatial distribution of carbon emissions from different economic sectors. The primary and tertiary sectors had higher emissions in the southeast and lower emissions in the northwest regions, while the secondary sector showed higher emissions in the northwest and lower emissions in the southeast Between cities at different prefecture levels, differences do not only lie on the quantity of carbon emissions from the three sectors of economy but also a larger variation with regards to the change in quantity of carbon emissions. (4) The coordination degree of economic development was low among different prefecture-level cities. The economic and environmental development appeared coordinated among cities at the same prefecture level; however, coordination degrees among different prefecture-level cities varies significantly.


Author(s):  
Qing Yuan ◽  
◽  
Ran Guo

Maintaining a balance between economic development and carbon emissions reduction is an important part of low-carbon development in modern cities. At present, the positive effect of urban compactness on carbon emission efficiency has been demonstrated in large cities, but few studies have been carried out on small towns. Small towns are an important part of China’s urban system, accounting for 70% of the total population and 60% of the national GDP. Most small towns in China still promote economic growth and enhance the social welfare of residents by large-scale urban construction, which inevitably leads to urban expansion and high carbon emissions. How to reduce carbon emissions by optimising urban form while continuing with economic development and maintaining people’s welfare has become an important issue faced by small towns in China. To guide the low-carbon planning of small towns, it is necessary to understand the relationship between urban compactness and the economic benefit and socialwelfare levels associated with the carbon emissions in small towns. This study quantitatively analyse the relationship between urban compactness and carbon emission efficiency (including CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency) in small towns in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2008 to 2017. This study resulted in four main findings. (i) the expansion of urban scale had significantly improved the CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency; (ii) the compactness presented opposite effects on the CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency, compactness had a negative correlation with CO2 economic efficiency, and had a positive correlation with CO2 social efficiency; (ii) The CO2 economic efficiency and CO2 social efficiency both show an upward trend over the period 2008 to 2017; (iv) The relationship between GDP and carbon emissions in small towns did not reach an ideal state, the economies of small towns in China are still strongly dependent on scale expansion.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Tong

As economic development rapidly progresses in China, a method of carbon emission control that provides reasonable solutions is needed. This paper analyzes the convergence of carbon emission evolutionary characteristics in different regions of China and studies the dynamics of carbon emissions in China based on a convergence model. It was found that the carbon emission levels of each region are prominent in terms of time, and the regional carbon emission level has absolute β characteristics. The regional carbon emission condition β convergences have different convergence paths. Therefore, it is necessary to justify carbon emission reduction in China and put forward an emission reduction strategy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenbin Shao ◽  
Fangyi Li ◽  
Zhaoyang Ye ◽  
Zhipeng Tang ◽  
Wu Xie ◽  
...  

International and inter-regional trade in China has been promoted, the economic and environmental impacts of which are significant in regional development. In this paper, we analyzed the evolution of inter-regional spillover of carbon emissions and employment in China from 2007 to 2012 with structural decomposition method and multi-regional input-output tables. The index of carbon emission per employee (ICE) is designed and compared to indicate positive or negative spillover effects. We find that carbon emissions grow much more rapidly in interior regions than in coastal regions, due to spillover effects and own influences. Spillover effects rarely reduce the ICE of destination regions, but the own influences can decrease it in most regions. Although spillover may contribute to economic development in most regions, it is hardly a driver of efficiency improvement in destination regions. Based on these empirical findings, we put forward specific suggestions to improve the positive spillover effects on different kinds of regions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Kevin Lo

This paper identifies three types of model environmental cities in China and examines their levels of energy-related carbon emissions using a bottom-up accounting system. Model environmental cities are identified as those that have been recently awarded official recognition from the central government for their efforts in environmental protection. The findings show that, on average, the Low-Carbon Cities have lower annual carbon emissions, carbon intensities, and per capita emissions than the Eco-Garden Cities and the Environmental Protection Cities. Compared internationally, the Eco-Garden Cities and the Environmental Protection Cities have per capita emissions that are similar to those of American cities whereas per capita emissions from the Low-Carbon Cities are similar to those of European cities. The result indicates that addressing climate change is not a priority for some model environmental cities. Policy changes are needed to prioritize climate mitigation in these cities, considering that climate change is a cross-cutting environmental issue with wide-ranging impact.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 62
Author(s):  
Ming Wen ◽  
Mingxing Li ◽  
Naila Erum ◽  
Abid Hussain ◽  
Haoyang Xie ◽  
...  

This study empirically examines the effect of economic development on carbon emissions and revisits the environmental Kuznets curve in Suzhou, China. The study made use of the Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDPPC) of Suzhou, China as an indicator of economic development as it depicts the entire developmental ecosystem that indicates the level of production activities and total energy consumption. Bearing this in mind, the authors postulate that economic development directly increases carbon emissions through industrial and domestic consumptions. For this purpose, linear and non-linear approaches to cointegration are applied. The study finds the existence of an inverted U-shape relationship between economic development and carbon emission in the long run. Trade openness and industrial share are positively contributing to increasing carbon emissions. Energy use shows a positive sign but an insignificant association with carbon emissions. The study concludes that carbon emissions in Suzhou should be further decreased followed by policy recommendations.


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