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Food consumption has resulted in great carbon emissions in recent years. China has been facing the new mitigation challenge of carbon emissions with its emerging middle-income groups, especially in urban areas. This paper analyzes and predicts carbon emissions from food consumption (CEFC) of middle-income groups in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), which has a higher emerging middle-income group and the highest economic corridor in China. Few studies address CEFC analysis from middle-income groups perspective; thus, this paper calculates urban–rural CEFC of middle-income groups spanning 2010–2018 and predicts them in 2025, 2030 and 2035 using the extended IPAT model. Results are as follows: (1) YREB's urban–rural CEFC of middle-income groups show an upward trend and present a spatial pattern of "low–high–low–high" from the western region to the eastern region. Urban CEFC of middle-income groups are significantly higher than that of rural areas; (2) rural CEFC of middle-income groups in the YREB will first increase in 2025 and then decrease in 2030 and 2035. The growing trend of urban CEFC of middle-income groups will show a significant downward from 2025 to 2035. The growing proportion of urban CEFC of middle-income groups will exhibit an objective growth in 2035. Understanding the changing trend of CEFC of middle-income groups provides governments with differentiated and forward-looking suggestions toward coordinating middle-income groups' expansion and carbon emissions reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial land is currently the main carrier and important source of global carbon emissions, and as the world's largest developing country, China's large-scale and diversified industrial land supply has made it the world's largest carbon emitter. Therefore, researching the impact of different supply methods of industrial land on carbon emissions and its impact paths in China can help provide a reference for other countries to reduce carbon emissions from the perspective of urban industrial land management, which is of great significance for effectively promoting global carbon reduction. Based on this, this paper analyses the impact of different supply methods of industrial land on carbon emissions and its urban heterogeneity using the SYS-GMM and chain-mediated effects models for 285 cities in China from 2008 to 2020. The study found that, in general, the impact of different industrial land transfer modes on carbon emission has hysteresis and persistence. Agreement and listing transfer with government intervention can significantly exacerbate carbon emissions, while more market-based bidding and auction transfer can dampen carbon emissions. In terms of intermediary effects, the transfer of industrial land by agreement and listing will inhibit the rationalization and advancement of industrial structure, thus aggravating carbon emissions. The transfer of industrial land by bidding and auction will create barriers to entry and a crowding-out effect, promote the rationalization of industrial structure and the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure and moderate carbon emissions. In terms of city heterogeneity, there is urban heterogeneity in the impact of industrial land transfer on carbon emissions in cities with different economic types. Bidding and auction transfer for industrial land in both economically developed and less developed cities can promote carbon pollution. While the more developed urban economy makes the intermediary effect of industrial structure not significant. In the future, it is necessary to strictly control the scale of industrial land supply; the whole process supervision mechanism of industrial land allocation and differentiated industrial land supply strategies will provide useful experience for many developing countries in allocating industrial land to mitigate carbon emissions, generating effective contributions to global carbon emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accurate evaluation of carbon emission efficiency (CEE) at the city level can provide guidelines for understanding low carbon performance, which is crucial to achieving dual carbon targets. Existing CEE studies focused on national, industrial, and provincial scales while neglecting the city level and failing to consider competing relationships among decision-making units in their measurement models. To fill these gaps, this paper introduces the data envelopment analysis game cross-efficiency model (DEA-GCE) to measure urban CEE performance and compares it with the traditional Super-SBM model using the data from 283 Chinese cities between 2006 and 2019. The results show that (1) the DEA-GCE method provided more intensive and stable results. (2) Overall CEE of Chinese cities declined slightly amidst fluctuations during this period. (3) CEE in cities exhibits spatial clustering characteristics. CEE performance in Northeast China has improved, while CEE in Northwest China continues to lag behind. This study introduced an innovative method for calculating urban CEE and conducted an empirical study of 283 Chinese cities, which has implications for formulation of emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the opening of high-speed railway (HSR) as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper explores the emission reduction effect of HSR opening and its mechanisms and heterogeneity characteristics based on the panel data of 272 cities in China from 2006 to 2019 by staggered DID model and the mediating effect model. It is found that (1) the opening of HSR significantly reduces the carbon emission level of cities, and the conclusion still holds after controlling the endogeneity issue and a series of robustness tests; (2) Bancon decomposition and negative weight diagnostics both show that the estimated average treatment effect bias is small and the robust estimators are more robust; (3) by reducing production costs and promoting inter-regional industrial division of labor, the opening of HSR promotes intra-industrial structural transformation and inter-industrial structural transformation, respectively, thus reducing urban carbon emissions. At the same time, HSR achieves urban carbon emission reduction by promoting free movement of population and human capital agglomeration; and (4) further study finds that there is regional heterogeneity in the emission reduction effect of HSR opening, and the carbon reduction effect is mainly reflected in large and medium-sized cities, near provincial capitals, non-resource-based cities, and cities with rich educational resources, which indicates that the location of future HSR should be combined with the city's own characteristics and be tailored to the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formulation of long-term step-by-step emission reduction plan is an important step for effective scientific emission reduction. This paper takes Shanghai as the research object, constructs PSO-LSTM model on the basis of STIRPAT model, and further constructs three dynamic policy scenarios combined with China's actual situation and makes short-, medium-, and long-term multivariate predictions for them. The study finds that only the improvement of energy consumption structure has a promotion effect on carbon emission reduction, and urbanization, industrial structure, technology level, population, and economic level all have an increasing effect, and secondly, the carbon emission reduction path of Shanghai basically achieves the core objective of steady decrease under the three scenarios. Secondly, under the three scenarios, Shanghai's carbon emission reduction path basically achieves the core objective of steady decline, but the decline in the GU scenario is more significant. It is recommended that Shanghai further adjusts its industrial structure, optimizes its energy consumption structure, promotes technological innovation and progress, and promotes the development of the circular economy model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-carbon transition is a systemic economic and social change that will inevitably have an impact on many areas of the urban system. Has China's ongoing low-carbon transition impacted urban resilience (UR) systems while achieving urban energy saving and carbon emission reduction goals? This paper uses the implementation of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy (CETPP) as a "quasi-natural experiment." It evaluates the impact of the policy on UR using a difference-in-differences model based on the data of prefecture-level cities from 2008 to 2020. The study shows that pilot carbon trading policies favor UR, and the market mechanism of carbon emissions has a heterogeneous cause influence on UR. The impact of pilot carbon trading policies on UR varies according to the respective moderating effects of institutional factors, green technology innovation, industrial structure rationalization, and output effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, representatives from 198 countries convened for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) held between November 6 and 20, 2022. A consensus emerged regarding the imperative of embracing a "bottom-up" approach to tackling climate change. The phased introduction of dual-stage measures within the low-carbon city pilot policy in China affords a reputable natural experiment and establishes a treatment cohort for gauging carbon emissions within these zones. Empirical estimation of the abatement impact of China's low-carbon city pilot policy on carbon emissions is undertaken herein, leveraging a comprehensive dataset composed of information on carbon dioxide emissions and economic indicators spanning the years 2000–2017. Key findings are: (1) The low-carbon city pilot policy effectively reduces carbon emissions by 0.2808 Mt and decreases emission intensity by 11.59%. (2) China can achieve 40.28% of its emissions reduction target outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan due to the efficacy of low-carbon cities. (3) The emissions reduction effect of the policy significantly increases with the implementation of Emissions Trading Scheme pilots. 4) The primary-stage initiatives of the low-carbon city pilot policy drive its emissions reduction effect, while the secondary-stage policy has limited impact due to rational public expectations. This research presents a model for low-carbon city development, proposing strategies that align with a "bottom-up" approach to tackle climate change. These insights may encourage member parties to strengthen commitments and adopt net-zero goals at COP meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green and low carbon transition is a broad and profound economic and social systematic change. Green innovation is a critical way to promote energy saving and emission reduction. Has China continuously promoted a carbon emission trading policy to significantly promote green innovation cooperation? Taking the implementation of the carbon emission trading pilot policy as a "quasi-natural experiment," this study answers this question by exploring the impact of the policy on green innovation cooperation. Based on data on 274 cities from 2008 to 2020, the multi-time difference-in-differences model is used to evaluate the impact of the policy on green innovation cooperation. The results reveal that the carbon emission trading pilot policy significantly improved inter- and intra-city green innovation cooperation through the upgrading effect of industrial structure and the coverage effect of digital finance compared with the non-pilot cities at the city level. In addition, there are significant differences in the policy effects among cities with different degrees of openness to the outside world and command-and-control environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the relationship between economic development and carbon emissions is a hot issue of concern to academia. Taking Chinese cities as the research object, this study constructed an allometric growth model of economic scale and carbon emissions to analyze the spatial–temporal evolution of their allometric growth from 2000 to 2017. Additionally, the geographical detector model was used to reveal the driving mechanism of allometric growth. The findings were as follows. (1) The spatial–temporal patterns of economic scale and carbon emissions were dominated by hot spots. Additionally, their size distribution was in an equilibrium stage. (2) The gap between the economic growth rate of Chinese cities and the growth rate of carbon emissions grew, reflecting the remarkable achievements in carbon emission reduction in Chinese cities as a whole. The scaling exponent declined from east to the west during 2000–2008, but showed the opposite trend during 2009–2017. The proportion of cities with negative allometric growth in the sample cities increased from 76.49 to 97.86%. (3) The influence of city investment intensity, energy utilization efficiency, technological development level, social consumption level, fiscal investment level and economic development level on allometric growth gradually decreases. These factors were also the main factors affecting the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of allometric growth. (4) The impact of various factors had a synergetic enhancement effect. These factors can be classified as economic factors, environmental factors and a combination of them. Under the nonlinear coupling of multiple factors, a spatially differentiated pattern of allometric growth was formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]