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Decentralization has always been considered the reason local governments in China lack incentives for green development. Whether conferring honorary titles can motivate the competition mode of local governments to shift to low-carbon sustainable development is a scientific problem worth studying. In this paper, the civilized city policy is taken as a quasi-experiment, and its effect is evaluated using the method of difference-in-differences. The results show that civilized city policy can effectively promote the improvement of green total factor carbon efficiency. The mechanism is that the policy encourages local governments to mobilize multiple actors to participate in green development practices including strengthening local governments' environmental control, promoting the technological innovation of enterprises, and increasing public participation in environmental affairs. Heterogeneity analysis of local government incentives shows that the civilized city policy is more effective in cities where local officials are less than 54 years old and the city GDP growth rate is midstream in the province. The study confirms that awarding honorary titles to cities in China can effectively guide local governments toward a sustainable development model and provides new ideas for other countries in the world to use local policies to address global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Cities do play significant roles in tackling global environmental changes. Decoupling economic growth from environmental pressures is critical for global sustainable development, however, few studies pay attention to the decoupling analysis at city level. This paper conducts a comparative study of the decoupling performance of economic output from CO 2 emissions between Beijing and Shanghai, the top two cities in China. In this paper, the decoupling trends and the decoupling effects are explored from a sectoral perspective, by combining the Tapio decoupling elasticity and the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model. The results show that Beijing and Shanghai both experienced weak decoupling in construction, expansive negative decoupling in transport, expansive coupling in trade, and weak decoupling in others over the period 2000–2015. Moreover, agriculture appeared strong decoupling in Beijing, and recessive decoupling in Shanghai; industry showed strong decoupling in Beijing, and weak decoupling in Shanghai. The decoupling effects showed different magnitudes and patterns in industrial sectors between Beijing and Shanghai. Overall, per-capita GDP and population growth inhibited the decoupling, while energy intensity, industrial share, energy mix accelerated the decoupling process. Highlights • The decoupling of sectoral economic output from carbon emissions in Beijing and Shanghai are investigated. • Beijing's industry enjoyed better decoupling performance than Shanghai's industry. • Transport should be put more emphasis in further decoupling efforts. • Energy intensity is crucial effect accelerating the decoupling process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the shortage of water resources and aggravation of water supply risk in cities, more and more attention has been paid to the problems of emergency water supply. Now, research on emergency water supply already becomes one of the tasks which should be timely resolved. And the way to resolve the problem, choice and demonstration of the water source field are important and profound to cities. As to the cities in north China, they are affected by monsoon climate. As a result, the distribution of precipitation is non-uniform according to time and space. Besides, surface water flows slowly during drought season which results in easy pollution and difficult to treat. Comparing to surface water, the quality of groundwater is better and it is difficult to be polluted. So as to northern cities where groundwater is sufficient, choosing groundwater source field is more significant. First, the concept of emergency water supply is discussed in the paper based on the existing research work. Then the paper divides emergency water supply into two types according to the causing characters. One is emergency water supply caused by sudden disaster and the other is emergency water supply caused by non-sudden event. Accordingly we have two types of emergency water source field. They are sudden emergency water source field and backup water source field. Then the paper analyzes the characteristic of water resources in northern cities when emergency water supply is required, and concludes that it is better to choose groundwater resources as emergency water source field. After that, ten factors which affect the source field are discussed. These factors include the quantity of water, the quality of water, the possibility of drawing, duration of emergency water supply, and safety of the water source field, demanding of water in the source area, environment damage, and economic cost of emergency water supply, artificial regulation and profit balance. Based on it, the paper puts forward both the demonstration objects and demonstration tactics of the cities’ emergency water source field. At last the paper takes a water source field in the middle reaches of Yinma River as an example to demonstrate emergency water source field. The demonstration aims at five affects, including the quantity and quality of water, water drawing methods, environmental influence and economic cost of emergency water supply. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cities are facing considerable challenges resulting from imminent climate change impacts. Urban planning to minimise adverse impacts of climate change at the city level can establish a climate-resilient city. Mitigation strategies to reduce CO2 emissions would lead to a climate-friendly city. Integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation into sustainable city planning should not be merely added as a single level of sustainable city planning, but requires a wide range of multi-level cooperation. Lijiang City has experienced climatic change during the last half century, and its CO2 emissions have increased faster than the GDP growth. Nearby glaciers on Yulong Snow Mountain have been retreating and losing mass since the early twentieth century. In this paper, we identify economic sectors that are vulnerable to climate change, including tourism, agriculture and water supply, and propose mitigation and adaptation strategies to cope with climate change in this tourism city. As energy use is the largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, renewable energy has enormous CO2 reduction potential. Land use practices, a sectoral approach and public participation are all considered adaptive in climate planning. The proposals outlined are valuable as they provide an understanding of how to implement integrated climate planning and integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation into sustainable city planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of local (city-level) sustainable development (LSD) is explored against the backdrop of urban dynamics and the international discussions on sustainable development. Urban metabolism is a key concept used in the analysis. Overall, sustainable urban development is seen to have an internal dimension and an external dimension, even though urban jurisdictions may be restricted to the former. Sustainable cities (SCs) and policies for LSD are discussed conceptually and in terms of their operational use, with a focus on urban policies in developing and emerging countries. Examples are given of SCs in China. Cities with strategies related especially to climate change are considered separately and analysed in terms of developed-developing, adaptation or mitigation focus. Again, examples of especially 'low-carbon' cities in China are presented. From these elements, this paper extracts some elements of a (social science) research agenda in urban environmental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emissions trading scheme (ETS) is a key policy tool for reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change but may cause unintended social‐economic consequences. Clarifying the role of city heterogeneity can contribute to improving ETS policy and informing green development roadmaps. Using panel data of 274 Chinese prefecture‐level cities, the heterogeneous impacts of ETS on city green development efficiency (CGDE) were assessed by the difference in difference in difference (DDD) method. The results show that: the ETS significantly advances China's CGDE, mainly through inducing cities' green innovation. More insightfully, the ETS policy has more significant positive effects on the cities in the eastern region, high economic development, resource abundance, and good environmental governance than otherwise. The study suggests that designing the ETS should incorporate the cities' heterogeneous characteristics to accelerate green development through green innovation and cover more regions and industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon footprint (CF) and inequality reductions were two of the most important sustainable development goals. However, there was a lack of understanding of the latest equality of carbon footprint across regions. Based on the multi-regional input-output table and the China Family Panel Studies survey data of 17 provinces, this paper examined the evolution of carbon footprint and inequality in China. The results showed a stark disparity between regions and a declined inequality in the last few years. Specifically, the CF per capita in northern provinces (Liaoning, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Shaanxi) exceeded the average level in 2017. From 2015 to 2017, the carbon inequality showed a downward trend, with a national CF-Gini coefficient decrease from 0.31 to 0.28. Meanwhile, the gap between CF per capita in urban areas and rural areas was declining, with a growth rate at 18% and 32% from 2015 to 2017, respectively. In addition, CF per capita from various consumption categories indicated that household equipment and daily necessities, residential, transportation and communication were the three most important sources, with a downward trend from 2015 to 2017. This study would provide policymakers with deep insights into policies to achieve just transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on land use planning topics, including "Historical Amnesia: New Urbanism and the City of Tomorrow," "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge" and "Methodology for the Survival Analysis of Urban Building Stocks."