Differential impacts of urbanization characteristics on city-level carbon emissions from passenger transport on road: Evidence from 360 cities in China.

Although it's well known that the carbon intensity from passenger transport of cities varies widely, few studies assessed the disparities of that in city-level and its underlying factors due to the limited availability of data, and thus developed effective strategies for different types of cities. This study is the first to present a comprehensive inventory of emissions from passenger transport on road for 360 cities in mainland China for 2018, based on the data from 5 transport modes and evaluated by combining distance-based and top-down fuel-based methods. In 2018, passenger transport on road in China emitted 1076 MtC. A large portion of CO 2 emissions was identified in the southern and eastern coastal areas and capital cities. GDP, population, and policy were the major factors determining the total CO 2 emissions, but not carbon intensity. Clustering analysis of carbon intensity and 9 socio-economic predictors, using a tree-based regression model, clustered the 360 cities into 6 groups and showed that higher carbon intensities occurred in both affluent city groups with a high active population share and less affluent city groups with a low population density but high density of trip destinations. Forward-and-backward stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that constructing a compact city is more effective for city groups with a high income and high active population share. Enhancing land-use mixed degree is more critical for city groups with a high income and low active population share, while shortening travel distance by intensifying infrastructure construction is more important for the less affluent city groups. • A new comprehensive inventory of China's city-level emissions from passenger transport on road is presented. • GDP, population, and policy were the major factors determining the total CO 2 emissions, but not carbon intensity. • The active population share and density of trip destinations have significant effect in carbon intensities. • The compactness, land-use mixed and travel distance contribute variously in different city groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]