The effect of urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Jianbao Li; Xianjin Huang; Mei-Po Kwan; Hong Yang; Xiaowei Chuai

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.198

The effect of urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta, China

J Clean Prod. 2018 Jul 1:188:38-48. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.198. Epub 2018 Mar 21.

Authors

Jianbao Li^{1

2

3}, Xianjin Huang^{2

3}, Mei-Po Kwan^{4

5}, Hong Yang^{2

6}, Xiaowei Chuai²

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Administration, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China.
² School of Geography and Ocean Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Exploitation and Protection, Ministry of Land and Resources, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China.
⁴ Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
⁵ Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁶ Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AB, UK.

Abstract

Cities have been one of the most important areas of CO₂ emissions. It is increasingly important to research the effect of urbanization on CO₂ emissions, especially in large emerging and developing economies, due to the indispensable need for understanding the effect of urbanization on CO₂ emissions, evaluating carbon reduction tasks and providing the scientific basis for low-carbon urbanization. Utilizing a balanced panel dataset in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), China, during the period of 2000-2010, this paper employed data envelopment analysis (DEA) window analysis and a spatial lag panel Tobit model to investigate the effect of urbanization on CO₂ emissions efficiency (the ratio of the target CO₂ emissions to the actual CO₂ emissions). The results show that the average CO₂ emissions efficiency was 0.959 in 2010, and CO₂ emissions efficiency ranged from 0.816 to 1 and exhibited spatial clustering in the region. The larger potential of CO₂ emissions reduction appeared in Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, indicating that more CO₂ emissions reduction tasks should be allocated to these two cities. Urbanization has negative effects on improving CO₂ emissions efficiency, and there is a U-curve relation between CO₂ emissions efficiency and urbanization, indicating that CO₂ emissions efficiency decreases at the early stage of urbanization, then increases when urbanization reach a high level. There is spatial spillover effect among the prefecture-level cities, suggesting that different prefecture-level governments should coordinate with each other to improve CO₂ emissions efficiency in the whole area. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita also plays a markedly positive role in improving CO₂ emissions efficiency. This research highlights the effect of urbanization on CO₂ emissions efficiency and the importance of improving CO₂ emissions efficiency in developing countries.

Keywords: CO2 emissions efficiency; Data envelopment analysis window analysis; Spatial lag panel Tobit model; Urbanization; Yangtze River Delta.