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The effects of urbanization and urban sprawl on CO2 emissions in China

Environment, Development and Sustainability volume 25, pages 1792–1808 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

With the steady increase in urbanization that has occurred, China has begun to suffer from serious urban sprawl. Both the increase in urbanization and the subsequent urban sprawl have led to major changes in CO2 emissions. In this paper, we expand the STIRPAT model to empirically analyse the effects of China’s urbanization and urban sprawl on CO2 emissions from 1997 to 2018, with regression results showing that both urbanization and urban sprawl have increased CO2 emissions. Further analyses of the mechanisms indicate that urbanization can increase overall CO2 emissions by not only increasing industrial CO2 emissions, but also by increasing construction CO2 emissions and residential consumption CO2 emissions as well. Urban sprawl can increase overall carbon emissions by increasing CO2 emissions from transport, construction and industry. We then make specific suggestions for China’s carbon reduction and low-carbon development based on these findings.

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Funding

National Natural Foundation of China (71803087).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Institute of Manufacturing Development, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Zhonghua Cheng & Xiaowen Hu

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  1. Zhonghua Cheng
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  2. Xiaowen Hu
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ZC contributed to conceptualization; formal analysis; methodology; writing–original draft. XH contributed to formal analysis; writing—review and editing; data curation.

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Correspondence to Zhonghua Cheng.

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Cheng, Z., Hu, X. The effects of urbanization and urban sprawl on CO2 emissions in China. Environ Dev Sustain 25, 1792–1808 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02123-x

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Keywords

  • Urbanization
  • Urban sprawl
  • CO2 emissions
  • Dynamic spatial panel