Green Reshaping of China's Urbanization in the Context of Global Carbon Neutrality

Abstract

The essence of global carbon neutrality is the most comprehensive and profound transformation of the development paradigm since the industrial revolution. The fundamental purpose of economic development is to improve people's well-being, and urbanization is the spatial manifestation of economic development. Therefore, the fundamental reason for the emergence of cities and towns is to promote economic development, thereby improving people's well-being. Different economic activities require different forms of spatial distribution. The large-scale urbanization of the population is a phenomenon of the industrial age. In the ages of agriculture, industry, and the current era of green development under Internet conditions, due to changes in development content, there are different demands for space, and the spatial form of economic activities has undergone substantial changes.

1 Introduction

The essence of global carbon neutrality is the most comprehensive and profound transformation of the development paradigm since the industrial revolution. The fundamental purpose of economic development is to improve people's well-being, and urbanization is the spatial manifestation of economic development. Therefore, the fundamental reason for the emergence of cities and towns is to promote economic development, thereby improving people's well-being. Different economic activities require different forms of spatial distribution. The large-scale urbanization of the population is a phenomenon of the industrial age. In the ages of agriculture, industry, and the current era of green development under Internet conditions, due to changes in development content, there are different demands for space, and the spatial form of economic activities has undergone substantial changes.

Global carbon neutrality is essentially a change in development paradigm, which has different spatial meanings. Therefore, we cannot think about urbanization in the era of green development in the perspective of traditional industrial era. The existing urbanization model, whether it is the content carried by the city or the organization of the city, is to a large extent the product of the traditional industrial era. When the development model that is the foundation of urbanization undergoes fundamental changes, the corresponding urbanization model will also undergo fundamental changes. Therefore, to think about China's future green urbanization model, we must go beyond the thinking of urbanization in the traditional industrial era.

This report studies the green reshaping of China's urbanization in the context of global carbon neutrality. The structure of the report is as follows: The first part reveals the profound implications of carbon neutrality for the transformation of China's economic development model and urbanization. In the second part, in the new background of global carbon neutrality, further thinking about China's green urbanization strategy proposed in the previous study of this SPS. The third part focuses on the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality situation and challenges faced by Chinese cities. In the fourth to sixth parts, we discuss the “three major tasks” of China’s green urbanization in turn, namely the reshaping (or urban renewal) of existing cities and towns, the green urbanization of newly-increased urban populations, and the background of rural–urban coordination. Rural revitalization. In the seventh part, we reveal how China's urbanization could shift from a GDP-oriented urbanization model to a well-being-oriented urbanization model. The eighth part is policy recommendations.

2 The New Background of Green Urbanization: Global Carbon Neutrality

2.1 The End of the Traditional Industrial Era, the Opening of a New Era of Development

On September 22, 2020, President Xi Jinping announced at the 75th United Nations General Assembly that China strives to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and strives to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. This ambitious goal is China’s strategic choice under the new development stage, new development concept, and new development pattern. It is the inevitable requirement for achieving high-quality development, deepening supply-side structural reforms, realizing modernization of “harmonious symbiosis of man and nature”, and building the shared future of mankind community. If the carbon peak goal could be achieved under the traditional industrialization model, then the carbon neutral goal needs to be achieved through fundamental changes in production methods and lifestyles under the new development concept. The goal of carbon neutrality is certainly an arduous challenge, but it is also an opportunity for China to start China's next “40-year development miracle” in a new stage of development with new development concepts. If the industrial revolution started the era in which the West is leading the world, green development, marked by carbon neutrality and driven by the transformation of production and lifestyle, has provided the possibility for China to make contribution for global sustainable development.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 130 countries have pledged carbon neutrality or net zero carbon emissions in various forms. These countries account for 75% of global emissions and economy. More importantly, 70% of these are developing countries. This means that the so-called environmental inverted U-curve, which has been regarded as the standard in the past, no longer becomes the law of economic development. A country at the low development level could achieve a low-carbon takeoff. This contrasts sharply with how countries share the burden of emission reduction in 2009. This dramatic change has occurred because of the deepening global climate change crisis. More importantly, these countries have seen the possibility of carbon neutrality and the huge opportunities behind it. From Copenhagen to the present, the cost of new energy has fallen sharply in the past 10 years, and it has become competitive energy that can compete with coal-fired power. Other green technologies are also emerging in large numbers. In the era of carbon neutrality, whoever acts early is likely to win the opportunity. Those countries that do not participate in global carbon neutrality will become losers in global competition.

As the world’s largest developing country and the world’s second largest economy, China’s announcement of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 has greatly encouraged global confidence in addressing climate change and has strongly promoted global consensus and actions on carbon neutrality (Fig. 4.1).

Fig. 4.1

Annual CO₂ emissions in the major economies

2.2 Green Urbanization Under the “Three New” Pattern

To formulate China's carbon peak and carbon neutral strategy, it is necessary to understand the background and deep meaning of China's proposed goal from the height of the new development stage, new development concept and new development pattern. If we use the traditional industrial thinking in the past to understand the goal of carbon neutrality, we may only see challenges and burdens; if we look at carbon neutrality from the perspective of new development stages, new development concepts, and new development patterns, we will see more a large number of new development opportunities.

First, it is proposed that carbon neutrality is not only due to changes in China's development stage. The development stage does not necessarily mean high emission reduction commitments. For example, the United States under Trump administration not only did not propose carbon neutrality, but also withdrew from the “Paris Agreement” or even didn’t recognize the existence of climate change issues. It believed in the outdated development concepts of the traditional fossil energy era.

Second, it is not because of the so-called international pressure, but because carbon neutrality is in its own strategic interests. Emission reduction has long been a voluntary action in China, rather than the result of international pressure. Moreover, the international community generally did not expect China to proactively announce the 2060 carbon neutrality target. If China does not strategically agree that 2060 carbon neutrality is in China's national interests, no amount of international pressure will make China make such a commitment.

Third, the proposal of the carbon neutral target is basically a change in China's development philosophy. These concepts are embodied in the series of speeches by President Xi and the successful practice of China: “Green is treasure” (2013 Nazarbayev University speech), Paris Climate Conference 2015 (two “win–win”), UN General Debate (2020), Climate Ambition Summit (2020), etc. For example, in his speech at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015, President Xi Jinping put forward two “win–win” viewpoints. One is that green recovery can achieve a win–win situation between economic development and addressing climate change; the second is that addressing climate change can achieve a win–win situation among countries, and countries can share opportunities instead of zero-sum games.

Fourth, China has a clear understanding of the formidable challenge of carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality is an inevitable choice to solve the unsustainable crisis of the traditional development model. It is not a question of whether or not it is necessary, but a question of how to achieve it. Regarding the challenge of carbon neutrality, President Xi Jinping pointed out when the United Nations announced China’s 2060 carbon neutrality goal, “This epidemic has inspired us that mankind needs a self-revolution to accelerate the formation of green development methods and lifestyles, and build ecological civilization and beauty. Earth”.

2.3 The Development Model as the Foundation of Urbanization Has Undergone Profound Changes

Carbon neutrality means a fundamental shift in the development paradigm. This means that the development model that is the foundation of urbanization is undergoing the most profound transformation since the Industrial Revolution. This green transformation is substantially different from the transformation of the development mode that we have been talking about since the 1980s. In the past, it was more about technological progress and industrial upgrading, and did not involve changes in development concepts, values, consumption patterns, etc. However, only relying on technological progress and industrial upgrading can solve the emission reduction and problems of individual countries, but it cannot solve the problem of global emission reduction alone.

The essential difference between carbon peak and carbon neutrality has different requirements for changing production methods and lifestyles. The carbon peak is more of a response to our economic transformation in the traditional sense of the past. Carbon neutrality corresponds to a fundamental change in the mode of development, a comprehensive and profound transformation of production and lifestyles after the industrial revolution. Carbon peaking is a natural result that usually occurs in the process of economic development under the traditional industrialization model. If we want to achieve an earlier and lower carbon peak, we only need to increase emissions reduction efforts. However, achieving the 2060 carbon neutral goal means that the foundation of the existing economic operation will be fundamentally changed, and a fundamental transformation of production methods and lifestyles is required, which is a self-revolution.

As far as achieving the carbon peak goal is concerned, it does not necessarily require profound changes in production methods and lifestyles. Under the traditional industrialization model, after a normal economy has experienced economic take-off and entered a mature period, its carbon peak will usually peak in the BAU scenario and then stabilize at a high level. Therefore, mere carbon peaking does not necessarily require changes in production methods and lifestyles. In the industrialized countries that peaked in the 1980s, such as Germany, Hungary, France, and the United Kingdom, peaking carbon was a natural process, and there was no requirement to reduce emissions. After carbon emissions peak, if factors such as technological progress and overseas transfer of industries exceed the impact of domestic production expansion on carbon emissions, carbon emissions will decline to a certain extent. If a country adopts aggressive emission reduction measures, including clean energy, new technologies, etc., the decline will increase, and the peak will appear earlier and lower. However, this decline has its limits, and it is impossible to naturally decline to the level of carbon neutrality.

However, for carbon neutrality, it requires not only a change in production methods, but also a profound change in lifestyle. If the production method is changed, that is, a greener production method is used to reduce the carbon intensity of a unit product, the carbon emissions produced by producing the same GDP will be reduced. However, if the reduction in carbon intensity cannot keep up with the economic expansion, the transformation of production methods may not necessarily reduce total carbon emissions, let alone achieve net zero emissions. Therefore, the change of lifestyle, that is, the change of consumption content, becomes a must. When people’s development concepts change, instead of pursuing material consumption expansion as the goal, but turning to the satisfaction of people’s overall needs, it will bring about a profound change in the content of development, and thus economic growth and carbon emissions will be largely decoupled, and finally achieve a high-level modernization under carbon neutrality.

3 Overall Strategy of Green Urbanization in the Context of Global Carbon Neutrality

Global carbon neutrality is to establish a new development paradigm, and the new development paradigm will inevitably require a new urbanization model. The existing urbanization model, whether it is the economic content carried by the city or the city's own organization, is largely a product of the traditional industrial era. Jumping out of the traditional industrialization thinking framework and promoting green urbanization based on ecological civilization is the fundamental way to achieve sustainable urban development.

3.1 Strategic Tasks of Green Urbanization

“Green urbanization” from the perspective of ecological civilization is not “building parks in existing cities”, but “building cities in (natural) parks”, which means creating without destroying the ecological environment and making full use of natural forces to create a prosperous urban economy. This means a profound change in the concept of development, the content carried by the city, the organizational logic of the city and its regional economic meaning. To reshape China's urbanization based on ecological civilization; it should be promoted around the “three major tasks” and the “two strategies”.

“Three major tasks”

The first is to reshape the existing cities in accordance with the new production and lifestyle requirements of the digital green era, including the creation of a new green economy and the green transformation of urban infrastructure; the second is to realize the urbanization of the new urban population in the future in a green way; The third is to re-understand and position the function of the countryside to realize the coordinated development of urban and rural areas.

“Two strategies”

The first is the green transformation of urban clusters that account for more than 90%, 70%, and 30% of the national GDP, population, and land area, respectively; the second is county level urbanization. In addition to the concentration of the population in the county town, a large number of people will be urbanized on the spot in the form of characteristic towns to take advantage of the benefits of towns and villages at the same time. In addition, cities and towns should transform from a functional city to a pro-natural city model, and no longer regard nature as an externality, but introduce the value of nature into urban planning and decision-making.

3.2 The Key Conditions That Determine Urbanization Are Undergoing Profound Changes

As human society enters the digital green era from the traditional industrial era, the three key factors that determine the urbanization model are all undergoing drastic changes. These changes are particularly dramatic in China. This means that China's future urbanization model will undergo profound changes.

First, the dramatic increase in transaction efficiency. With the advent of mobile Internet technology, the digital age, and the rapid transportation system, the traditional concept of time and space is undergoing major changes. Many economic activities no longer need to rely on the large-scale physical concentration of production factors and markets as in the industrial era. It can be done in a city or a fixed location.

Secondly, changes in technical conditions have enabled many public facilities and services that originally relied on the concentration of physical space to be provided in a decentralized manner. For example, heating, sewage treatment, distributed energy, garbage disposal, etc., under many conditions, can shift from centralized supply to distributed supply. This means that in some small towns and villages, a high-quality life can also be achieved at low cost. In the digital age, many government services can also be provided through digital platforms.

Third, and more importantly, changes in development content. As discussed earlier, the traditional industrialization model will inevitably lead to an unsustainable environment. One of the important contents of the green urbanization transformation is to change the content of supply. Among them, meeting people's new definition of “good life” a large number of emerging service needs is the direction of green development, and it is also the new economic foundation of green urbanization. Although urban clusters will still be very important, a lot of content no longer needs to be concentrated on a large scale like industrial production. In particular, many environments and traditional cultures are distributed in villages and small towns. Therefore, many new economic activities may appear in the countryside, and the relationship between the city and the countryside will be redefined.

3.3 The Meaning of Green Urbanization

It needs to be pointed out that although the above three changes have caused many economic activities to no longer rely on the physical concentration of production factors as in the past, this does not necessarily mean “the decline of the city”, nor does it mean that a large amount of economic activities will leave the city, but it means that both the traditional urban and rural concepts need to be redefined to form a new source of growth.

• The economic activities carried by cities have undergone profound changes. People's demand for a “good life” is not just material wealth. With the escalation of people's needs, the content of economic development has expanded from traditional material wealth to more emerging services. Many economic activities that do not exist under the traditional definition of development will appear in large numbers. For example, relying on the advantages of population concentration, existing cities can develop cultural creativity and experience economy, thereby realizing the transformation of development content; the countryside is no longer just a place for the production of agricultural products, but a new type of geographic space that can accommodate many new off-farm economic activities, including experience, ecological sightseeing, education, health, etc.

• The city's own organization and geographic spatial layout will change. For example, the way of food, clothing, housing, transportation will be greatly changed; the original centralized energy supply may be partially replaced by distributed energy. Urban infrastructure will be more based on ecological principles, and so on.

The above changes have the effect of promoting the further agglomeration of economic activities and the effect of promoting the dispersion of economic activities. Whether the geographical distribution of urbanization in the future will be agglomeration or decentralization depends on which of the above three determinants dominates.

Next, we first analyze the problems of orderly urban carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the context of carbon neutrality. Then, in this context, we will analyze the “three major tasks” proposed in the green urbanization strategy in turn, that is, the reshaping or renewal of existing cities and towns, the green urbanization of the new urban population in the future, and the rural revitalization in the context of urban–rural coordination.

4 Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality in Cities

Carbon neutrality means a fundamental transformation of the development paradigm. Carbon neutrality becomes a global consensus and action, which can promote a city's thorough green transformation in accordance with the requirements of the development paradigm. In terms of spatial scope, cities are the centers of economic activity and the main body of greenhouse gas emissions. Cities often assume the functions of a country's political, economic, cultural, social and other activities center, and are also the main energy consumption unit of a country. Cities are responsible for 75% of a country’s energy consumption and 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.

After President Xi Jinping announced at the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2020 that the 2030 carbon peak and the 2060 carbon neutral target, domestic cities have accelerated their pace of reducing emissions. Since China is a vast country with uneven development, different cities have different levels of development, economic structure, and resource endowments. How to reach peaks and neutralize them in an orderly manner has become a very important issue.

4.1 Current Status of Carbon Peaks in Chinese Cities

Although China's new “dual carbon” was proposed in 2020, China has been unanimously adopting strong measures to reduce emissions. Since 2010, the National Development and Reform Commission of China has successively carried out three batches of national low-carbon provinces and cities in 2010, 2012, and 2017 in 6 provinces and 76 cities, aiming to explore the first to achieve low carbon emissions in different regions. Carbon development model and effective path. The national low-carbon pilot cities focus on achieving peak carbon emissions targets, forcing low-carbon development and transformation, increasing the promotion and application of low-carbon technologies and products, and promoting low-carbon development in key areas such as industry, construction, and transportation, and low-carbon development model. This work mainly preceded China's “dual carbon” target in September 2020.

Most of the cities participating in the pilot have proposed targets for the peak year of carbon dioxide emissions. According to the relevant implementation plans or plans for the control of greenhouse gas emissions issued by 9 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Shandong, Hainan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Gansu, and Xinjiang during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, the proposal A clear peak time for overall carbon emissions. In

• Beijing: Propose 2020 and reach the peak as soon as possible.

• Tianjin: It is proposed to reach its peak around 2025.

• Yunnan: It is proposed to reach its peak around 2025.

• Shandong: It is proposed to reach its peak around 2027.

• Shanghai: In the “Shanghai City Master Plan (2017–2035)”, it is proposed that carbon emissions will peak before 2025.

Although some provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have not proposed the peak time for the province as a whole, they have proposed peak targets for key regions, pilot cities or key industries according to their respective provinces, and are conducting research on carbon emissions peaking, and make plan.

• Jiangsu: Proposed to support Suzhou and Zhenjiang's optimized development areas to achieve the first peak of carbon emissions by 2020.

• Guangdong: It is proposed that developed cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen strive to reach their peak in 2020.

• Jiangxi: It is proposed to strive to achieve the first peak of some heavy chemical industries around 2020.

• Sichuan: It is proposed that some heavy chemical industries will achieve their peak carbon emissions at the same time as the same industries across the country around 2020.

In addition, most low-carbon pilot cities have also put forward specific peak targets in their respective pilot programs.

After the dual-carbon target, especially the Central Economic Work Conference at the end of 2020 proposed that “dual carbon” should be included in the eight key tasks of 2021, and the ninth meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee in March 2021 proposed that “dual carbon” work should be included in the overall layout of civilized construction, local governments have stepped up efforts to implement the central deployment, and the “dual-carbon” work has entered a new stage.

4.2 Urban “Dual Carbon” Goal: How to Proceed in an Orderly Manner

The so-called “the nation acts as a whole” is that the country sets emission reduction targets, and then, in order to minimize the cost of emission reduction, various regions coordinate actions to achieve the national targets in the most efficient way according to their own conditions. If every region keeps the same pace as the whole country, it is certainly not the most efficient approach. It is necessary to formulate a national carbon neutral roadmap based on the 30–60 target and proceed in an orderly manner; it is necessary to prevent some cities from not taking effective actions to reduce emissions, but also to prevent some cities from advancing blindly.

In order to achieve the national carbon neutrality goal, every city is not required to reduce emissions to the same degree. In order to achieve the national emission reduction targets most efficiently, some places may reduce emissions more and others less, and finally achieve carbon peaks and carbon neutrality one step at a time.

City’s carbon emissions:

Carbon emissions on the production end: $E_{y} = e_{y} Y$.

Carbon emissions on consumption end: $E_{x} = e_{x} X$.

Three possibilities: (1) E_x > E_y; (2) E_x = E_y; (3) E_x < E_y.

Consumption X = production Y + Net Import I.

Assume that two cities form such a system of industrial division of labor:

• City A: Produce low-carbon products, then sell low-carbon products to city B, and buy high-carbon products (or electricity) from city B for consumption.

• City B: Produce high-carbon products (or provide electricity), sell high-carbon products (or electricity) to city A, and buy low-carbon products from city A.

At this time, from the perspective of production, city A's economic growth and carbon emissions have achieved a strong decoupling, and city B is a high-carbon economy.

However, from the perspective of consumption, there is no difference in carbon emissions between city A and city B. Moreover, usually because city A has higher income and higher consumption, its consumption end carbon emissions are higher than that of city B.

Obviously, the strong decoupling of city A (economic growth + decrease in absolute emissions) is at the cost of weak decoupling of city B (economic growth + carbon emission intensity declines, but total emissions still increase). The decoupling model of City A cannot solve the overall problem.

Therefore, we cannot say that the strongly decoupled city A must have made a greater contribution to the national carbon neutrality, while the weakly decoupled city B has made less contribution to the national carbon neutrality. We cannot even say that those cities that continue to increase their carbon emissions due to their industrial structure contribute less effort to the country’s carbon neutrality.

4.3 How Far is Urban Emission Reduction from Green Transformation

Shan [1] studied the economic growth and carbon emissions of 294 prefecture-level cities in China. These cities cover 55% of China's land space, 94% of the population, and most of the GDP and emissions. The study divided these cities into four types, namely, strong decoupling, weak decoupling, coupling, and negative decoupling. Strong decoupling means absolute reduction in carbon emissions and economic growth. Weak decoupling means that carbon emission intensity decreases, but total emissions continue to grow, and the economy also grows.

The results show that at present, 11% of cities have achieved strong decoupling, that is, while economic growth, carbon emissions have absolutely dropped. Although the carbon emission intensity of 65.6% of the cities has declined, their total emissions have increased. In the remaining cities, carbon intensity or total emissions are rising.

Note: Results show that 11% of the cities have negative emission growth between 2005 and 2015, whereas their economy continued to grow (i.e., strong decoupling). A total of 65.6% of cities exhibit slower growth of emissions than economic growth (i.e., weak decoupling).

Although “decoupling or not” is an important criterion for evaluating a city's emission reduction work, we cannot simply use “decoupling or not” to evaluate the quality of a city's emission reduction work. We also need to look at how these cities are decoupled and its impact. Those 11% strong decoupling cities do not necessarily mean that they have made a greater contribution to China's emission reduction endeavor, and other non-decoupling cities do not necessarily “drag” China's emission reduction endeavor. It is still needed to further examine the reasons for the absolute decrease in carbon emissions. For cities with absolute decline in carbon emissions, further investigations are needed at this time:

First, does the decrease in emissions at the production end mean that the life-cycle emissions at the consumption end also decrease at the same time. If not, the decline in carbon emissions is largely based on high emissions in other regions, and the model cannot be extended to other places, which will greatly reduce the significance of national emission reduction and demonstration. According to Shan [1], during the period 2010–2015, the proportion of manufacturing in those cities that are strongly decoupled has dropped, reducing their carbon emissions by 26.2%. However, industrial transfer does not necessarily mean that the proportion of manufacturing will decline. It may be more about upgrading from the low-end of the manufacturing industry to the high-end and transferring high-emission low-end industries to other places. Therefore, these need further research.

Second, if the emissions from the consumer side also decrease at the same time, has the effect on the ecological environment and resource consumption seen in the entire life cycle of the consumer side also improved? Due to data and practical reasons, we are unable to conduct a detailed study on this yet.

Judging from macro data, most of these strongly decoupled cities are in the high-income stage, their production structure is upgraded, and their industries are at the high end of the division of labor chain, that is, at the two ends of the so-called smile curve. As a result, it is not surprising that its carbon emissions have fallen and economic growth occur at the same time.

If we examine the consumption side of these strongly decoupled cities, we can find that the consumption structure of these strongly decoupled cities is not significantly different from other cities that are at the same income level but are not strongly decoupled. In other words, they have not achieved the decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions on the consumption side, and the strong decoupling on the production side may be achieved more due to the division of labor.

According to the research on carbon emissions from household consumption in China [2], household consumption carbon emissions are an important part of global carbon emissions and have become a new growth point for carbon emissions, while the direct and indirect energy consumption of Chinese households and the share of carbon emissions have shown an obvious trend of gradual expansion.

According to the research of Liu Shijin's team [3], it can be seen from Fig. 4.2 that there are obvious differences in the Gross Final Product (GFP) structure between provinces and cities in different development stages, and at the same time, it shows obvious regularity with the changes in the development stage.

This brings up a question: Although a city can achieve the decoupling of economic growth and carbon emissions, what kind of decoupling is of overall significance? What can be called a true low-carbon city? Those cities with high income levels can rely on their own advantages to upgrade their industries to low-carbon and high value-added value chains, or transfer low-end and high-polluting industries to other regions to reduce their own carbon emissions and achieve economic growth. At the same time, purchase consumer goods from other regions to maintain high emissions on the consumer side.

4.4 The Public’s Recognition of “Dual Carbon”: Residents of Some High-Carbon Cities Are More Supportive of “Dual Carbon”

Public opinion identification represents the positive identification of local netizens on related topics. Through semantic analysis of netizens’ comment texts based on machine learning, emotional tendencies are identified, and calculated from the difference between the number and proportion of positive and negative emotions.

Figure 4.2 shows that the national recognition of dual-carbon work is relatively high. It is generally believed that the masses in the traditional coal-based cities, due to their high dependence on coal, should have relatively low recognition of “dual carbon”. However, what is inconsistent with people's intuition is that big data shows that in many cities that rely heavily on coal, their residents are ranked in the forefront of the country's recognition of the “dual carbon” goal. The reason for this may be the air pollution caused by coal, the negative image of the city, and most residents do not directly benefit from these industries. Compared with residents, the government relies more on the taxation of these industries.

Fig. 4.2

Public recognition of “dual carbon” based on big data analysis in cities. Note This figure shows the 30 cities with the highest degree of recognition of “dual carbon” characterized by “public opinion recognition”. The purpose of this research is to reveal the reasons behind the “dual-carbon” identification and the policy implications. In order to avoid unnecessary “ranking” problems, the city names are omitted. Data source RIEco joint research project

In the next part, we analyze in turn the three main tasks facing China's green urbanization proposed in the previous research of our project. The first is how to reshape the urbanization formed in the traditional industrial era in accordance with the requirements of ecological civilization. This can be understood as the ongoing urban renewal. The second is how to realize urbanization in new ways for the newly added urbanized population in the future. The third is how to realize the revitalization of the countryside through redefining the countryside.

5 Urban Renewal from the Perspective of Ecological Civilization

5.1 Urban Renewal Has Become a Central Task

An important part of the transformation of green urbanization is to reshape the cities formed in the traditional industrial era with new development concepts, that is, urban renewal. The new development concept means a systematic transformation of development content, resource concepts, and business models. The Central Economic Work Conference proposed the term “urban renewal” for the first time when deploying economic work in 2020. In 2020, the “Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goals for 2035” approved by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that “Implementing Urban Renewal Actions”. All these indicate that China's urban renewal has received unprecedented attention and has opened a new stage of urban renewal development.

According to the central deployment, in 2020, the country plans to complete the renovation of 603 million square meters of old urban communities, the renovation of 6,891,300 households, the renovation of 251,900 buildings, and the renovation of 39,000 communities. Urban renewal at this stage focuses on the transformation of old communities, but it is not limited to the transformation of old communities. In 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Reconstruction of Old Communities in Cities and Towns”, which stated that “Reconstruction of old communities in cities and towns is a major livelihood project and development project. Domestic demand, the promotion of urban renewal and the transformation of development and construction methods, and the promotion of high-quality economic development are of great significance.”

In 2021, the “14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035” adopted by the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress further clearly stated that “accelerate urban renewal, transform and upgrade old communities, The functions of stock areas such as old factories, old neighborhoods and urban villages” combine urban renewal with the promotion of urban spatial structure optimization and quality improvement.

5.2 Outstanding Problems in Urban Renewal

At present, China's urban renewal has made great achievements, but there are also some outstanding problems. Among them, the most important issue is that some places use the old thinking of the traditional industrial era to carry out urban renewal in the era of ecological civilization.

According to the requirements of the central government, urban renewal should conform to the law of urban development, and adopt green and low-carbon development as a path to transform urban development and construction methods. These green and low-carbon concepts are reflected in the documents.

• In 2014, the “Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Relocation and Reconstruction of Old Industrial Zones in Urban Areas” and the “Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Further Strengthening the Reconstruction of Shanty Areas” mentioned “green buildings”.

• In 2016, the “Guiding Opinions on Further Promoting the Redevelopment of Urban Inefficient Lands (Trial)” proposed to “firmly establish an innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared development concept.”

• In 2020, the “Guiding Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the Reconstruction of Old Communities in Cities and Towns” of the General Office of the State Council proposes that “combined with the rebuilding of old communities in cities and towns, simultaneously carry out the creation of green communities”.

However, due to the inertia of traditional thinking and institutional inertia, and due to that there are no definite rules on how to implement the concept of green and low-carbon in urban renewal, by which department it is supervised, and what indicators are reflected, it is often difficult to break away from traditional industrialization. Model when urban renewal is carried out in various places. These new concepts have not been well implemented in the specific work of urban renewal in various places.

The most typical reflection of traditional industrialization thinking in urban renewal is large-scale demolition and large-scale construction. To this end, the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development issued the “Notice on Preventing Major Demolition and Construction Issues in the Implementation of Urban Renewal Actions.” The “Notice” pointed out: Recently, various localities have actively promoted the implementation of urban renewal actions, but some places continue to use excessive real estate development. The tendency of construction methods, large-scale demolition and large-scale construction, and eagerness for quick success, random demolishing of old buildings, relocation of residents, and felling of old trees in disguised form raise housing prices, increase living costs, and create new urban problems.

Yang Baojun conducted an in-depth analysis of urban renewal. He classified the goals and tasks of the urban renewal action as: perfecting the urban spatial structure; implementing urban ecological restoration and functional improvement projects; strengthening historical and cultural protection, shaping the urban style; building complete residential communities; advancing the construction of new urban infrastructure; strengthening urban old Reconstruction of old communities; Zhangqiang City's flood control and drainage capacity; Promotion of urbanization with county towns as an important carrier.

5.3 Urban Renewal: Traditional Industrialization Thinking Versus Ecological Civilization Thinking

The traditional industrialization model is mainly based on the production and consumption of material wealth. It values tangible material resource input and material output, and ignores intangible culture, ecological environment and other resources. Therefore, if urban renewal is carried out in the traditional industrialized way of thinking, it may be habitually carried out in the form of “demolition and large-scale construction”.

We use two concrete examples to illustrate the essential difference between urban renewal under traditional industrialization thinking and urban renewal under ecological civilization thinking.

The case of Beijing 798 Art District. If the 798 factory is renovated in accordance with the traditional industrialization thinking, the first thing that may come to mind is to demolish the old factory buildings and build high-rise buildings. However, if we follow the thinking of ecological civilization. These practices did not realize that a large number of intangible cultural and ecological resources in a city can actually be transformed into a source of economic growth.

The case of “Four Seasons Market” in Dali, Yunnan. In the thinking of industrialization, the function of the old vegetable market is to sell vegetables. In the process of urban reconstruction, such places are often included as objects to be demolished. However, once you jump out of this traditional industrialization vision, you can see that in addition to the function of selling vegetables, the old vegetable market has great historical value and cultural value. These cultural values can be revitalized by entrepreneurs, designers and artists (vitalize), become new products and services, and produce good economic and social benefits.

The above two examples do not mean that all urban renewal must take the direction of cultural creativity, but use these two extreme examples to illustrate how different thinking produces different effects. The situation varies greatly from place to place, and it is necessary to adapt measures to local conditions according to their own circumstances. It can be seen that these cases are not the traditional industrialization model of traditional “demolition and construction”, but fully realize the importance of intangible culture, ecological environment and other resources, and realize their value through new business models. That is, the “green” resources that “turn a blind eye” under the traditional industrialization perspective are transformed into “treasure”. Among them, some are “treasure” that can be marketized, and some are not marketable, but they can greatly improve the subjective well-being of the people. For example, although the beautiful community environment has not brought the residents money income, it can significantly improve the residents’ happiness.

• Resource concept: In the traditional industrial era, economic development centered on the production and consumption of material wealth, while the resources needed by production industry are mainly material resources, such as raw materials. On the contrary, intangible culture, ecology, environment, etc., have no value in the industrial production process. Not only are they useless, but to make matters worse, they are largely destroyed by industrialized production models. For example, the traditional old Hutongs were demolished to build factories. This process of urban development is actually the destruction of the invisible social and cultural context formed by the original history by the logic of industrialization. Industrial sites and local cultural deposits are precious resources, but they are not noticed under the traditional industrialization vision, or even if noticed, their value cannot be realized commercially. These intangible resources have nonrival characteristics in economics. In other words, a city landscape can be enjoyed by many people at the same time, unlike a material commodity (such as an apple) that cannot be consumed by many people at the same time.

• The concept of well-being. The purpose of development is to pursue a better life, and a better life is not only part of market transactions, but also includes non-market transactions. For example, a beautiful ecological environment. Assume that two people have the same income, but one of them lives in an ecologically beautiful community and the other lives in an environmentally polluted community. Obviously, under the same conditions as other factors, the well-being of people living in the beautiful ecological environment is higher. In other words, for some people living in beautiful places, the same income will produce different levels of well-being or satisfaction. If you follow the concept of traditional industrialization, there should be no difference in the value of the two communities. But in fact, although the two have the same income level, they have different levels of well-being.

• Business model. Assuming an old neighborhood, if its environmental quality is improved and its culture is revitalized, it can drive many new business formats based on the environment and culture and become a driving force for economic growth. However, because intangible contents such as ecological environment and culture are difficult to be directly traded in the market, it is difficult to appear in the market. There are two basic ways: one is through government investment. However, due to the high degree of creativity in products such as culture, the government usually does not have the ability to directly provide products, but it can take the form of government purchase. This business model is that the government purchases services from the market, and these services promote new local economic formats, which in turn generate taxes and become new government revenues. The other way is a completely market-oriented way. For example, a company is responsible for the renovation of an old neighborhood. After the renovation is completed, the property value will be increased and new business formats will be formed. The company can hold shares in these new business formats and obtain continuous returns. At the same time, companies can also hold these properties to increase their value through urban renewal and bring continuous rents.

• The implications of productivity. The green renewal of the old city seems to have a low return on investment, but in fact the return is very high, just with different form of return. One-time investment, long-term return. The form of return not only promotes the economic development of the urban area, but also improves the non-monetary well-being of residents.

• The implications of sustainable development. Since the intangible ecological environment and culture are non-material resources, unlike material that is exhaustible, and culture also accumulates over time, intangible resources become more abundant as time goes.

Of course, not all the old city reconstructions have such a good material foundation. According to the requirements of the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development, apart from some buildings that have been identified as dangerous by professional institutions and have no maintenance value, the existing buildings shall not be demolished on a large scale and in a centralized manner. In principle, the urban renewal unit (sector) or the demolished building area in the project should not be larger than the current situation. 20% of the total construction area.

6 The Changing Trend of China’s Urbanization: Local Urbanization

The second major strategic task of China's green urbanization is how to achieve urbanization in a new way for the newly added urbanized population in the future. In the past, the transfer of agricultural labor to large and medium cities was regarded as a direction. However, the current trend of local urbanization in China seems to be more obvious.

6.1 China’s Local Urbanization Trend

Since 2009, the National Bureau of Statistics has been tracking and monitoring the flow of migrant workers every year, and issued the “Monitoring and Investigation Report on Migrant Workers.” According to its definition, local migrant workers refer to migrant workers who work within the township area where the household registration is located; migrant workers: refer to migrant workers who work outside the township area where the household registration is located. Starting from around 2010, the proportion of local migrant workers has continued to rise, while the proportion of migrant workers has begun to decline. It can be seen that if the definition of local migrant workers is extended to the county or the surrounding distance, this trend of change will be more obvious.

From 2008 to 2019, the proportion of migrant workers in the country was about 60%, while the proportion of local migrant workers was about 40%. It can be seen that among the agricultural transfer population, the proportion of migrant workers who went out to work outside the township where their household registration was located was more than 60%. However, starting from 2010, the proportion of migrant workers in all migrant workers has gradually declined, while the proportion of local migrant workers in all migrant workers has gradually increased. The proportion of migrant workers who migrate across provinces has decreased year by year from 53.3% in 2008 to 43.1% in 2019; the proportion of migrant workers in the province has continued to rise from 46.7% in 2008 to 56.9% in 2019.

6.2 City Scale and Economic Development

The concept of economies of scale is regarded by many as the driving force of urban economic development, and it played a major role in urban development. However, whether in theory or practice, urbanization is not evolving along the path of economies of scale.

In the theory of economic growth, population size is not always conducive to economic growth. For example, in Solow Growth Theory (1956), Endogenous Growth Theory, and Lewis Surplus Labor Theory, population size has a negative, positive, or neutral effect on economic growth, respectively. New economic geography represented by Krugman and Fujita [4] emphasizes the benefits of population size to economic growth. However, as Young [5] pointed out, the “extent of market” emphasized by Smith's theorem is not “mass production” and population size.

The research of Zhang and Zhao [6] shows that the enterprise scale economy in the Fujita-Krugman urbanization model is not in line with reality. Some empirical studies emphasizing city size show that there is a strong correlation between city size and its per capita GDP [4]. However, the conclusion may not be so simple. The hierarchical structure of large, medium and small cities is endogenized in the market. Due to the large market scale and high level of division of labor in large cities, their nominal GDP is usually higher than that of small and medium-sized cities. However, the GDP of large cities contains more transaction costs (commuter costs, housing prices, congestion, etc.), and the net utility is not necessarily higher. If we conduct regression analysis on urban population and GDP, we will always come to the conclusion that “the bigger the city, the higher the GDP per capita”. This conclusion alone may be misleading both academically and in policy.

In reality, we can find a lot of examples of “small cities but economically developed”, but also a lot of examples of “big cities but poor”. In Europe, more than half of the population lives in small and medium-sized cities with a population of 5000–100,000. At the same time, the size of the urban population does not mean prosperity. Of the 29 megacities in the world with more than 10 million, 22 are in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These megacities have not gained prosperity. In China, the development of many cities no longer depends on population growth. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between population and urban economic growth. In addition, most of the industries that are the basis of urbanization are distributed in counties, not in large cities.

According to research by Li Yuhong, the proportion of employees in township and village industries calculated by the Ministry of Agriculture exceeds 50%, and the proportion of employees in rural industries above designated size has increased from 40% in 2004 to 50% in 2013. According to the method of identifying urban and rural areas proposed in this paper, the proportion of rural industrial employees from 2004 to 2008 was 46%. In short, both census data and annual data show that China's rural industry has not declined since 2000, but has maintained a relatively stable growth trend.

7 Green Rural Revitalization Under the Background of Urban–Rural Coordination

The city and the country are two sides of the same problem. When the content and mode of economic development change, the definition of the countryside and the relationship between urban and rural areas will also change accordingly. After achieving a well-off society in an all-round way and completing the task of poverty alleviation, the focus of rural work has shifted to rural revitalization in an all-round way. To realize rural revitalization, we must first deeply understand the causes of rural backwardness. The rural backwardness is the inevitable result of the traditional development model.

Rural rejuvenation must break away from the traditional concept of “rural”, because “rural” is more a concept of traditional industrialization than a concept of ecological civilization. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the concept of “Xiang Cun revitalization” rather than “Nong Cun revitalization”, which has profound meaning behind it. “Nong Cun” is a very traditional industrialized concept. “Agriculture” corresponds to “industry”, which means that “rural areas” can only be engaged in agriculture, which is the place where farmers work and live, which is the traditional concept of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers”. In fact, the function of the village is far more than the traditional “three Nong” category. “Rural” is a spatial concept, which means that in addition to agriculture, the countryside can also have a large number of other functions, such as ecological services, culture and sports, education, leisure, health care, sightseeing experience and other functions, which can give birth to a large number of emerging economies and non-economic activity.

The fundamental reason for the decline of the countryside in the past was the traditional industrialization model established after the industrial revolution. This model centers on the production and consumption of industrial wealth, and economic development is regarded as a process of industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization. The countryside has always been in a subordinate position in the traditional development model, which is to provide industries and cities with agricultural products, labor, raw materials and markets. The process of economic development is considered to be the transfer of a large number of agricultural laborers to cities to develop industry, while traditional ecological agriculture has also been transformed into chemical agriculture using the logic of industrialization.

This development concept based on industrial material wealth and the concept of rural areas centered on cities and industry greatly restricts the development space of the countryside. The traditional industrialization model centered on industrial wealth mainly relies on the input of tangible material resources. As a result, a large number of intangible ecological and cultural resources in the countryside are difficult to play a role, and the value of “green” resources is difficult to be fully understood and even more difficult to transform into “treasure”. Moreover, this traditional industrialization model will destroy the cultural and ecological resources of the countryside. For example, high-pollution industries, extractive industries, and chemical agriculture are destroying the rural ecological environment. It is this traditional industrialization development concept and development model that has led to relatively lagging rural development, destruction of the ecological environment, and a large number of social problems.

Therefore, the root of the problem in the countryside lies in the unsustainability of the traditional industrialization model. The rural problem is only one aspect of the unsustainable consequences of the traditional development model. It can be said that almost all rural problems correspond to corresponding urban problems. Solving rural problems is essentially to solve the problems of the traditional development model, not just the problems of the village itself. As Einstein said, “We can't solve the problems by using the same kind of thinking when we created them.” Therefore, rural revitalization must break away from traditional industrialization thinking and transform from traditional industrial civilization to ecological civilization in order to achieve sustainable green development. This is the inherent logical relationship between rural revitalization and ecological civilization.

This is why the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the profound background of “Xiang Cun revitalization” instead of “Nong Cun revitalization”. The current problems we are facing are actually two levels. One is to solve the unsustainable problem of the traditional industrialization model, that is, to transform from the traditional industrialization model to green development based on ecological civilization. The second is to jump out of traditional industrial thinking and redefine the countryside under the concept of ecological civilization. The countryside is not just the concept of “three rural” in the traditional sense, but a geographical space that can carry various modern activities. In particular, in the mobile internet and digital age, the traditional concept of space has been redefined to a large extent, and rural areas can engage in many economic activities that were unimaginable in the past. In this way, the development space of the village will be greatly expanded, and the revitalization of the village will be truly realized.

8 From GDP Orientation to Well-Being Orientation: Urbanization in the New Development Era

The fundamental purpose of economic development is to improve well-being. One of the drawbacks of the traditional industrialization model is the inversion of development goals and means. A large number of studies have shown that in many countries, including China, the economic development under the traditional industrialization model has not continuously improved the level of national happiness as people thought. This is the famous Easterlin paradox [7], also known as the “happiness-income mystery” or “happiness paradox”. Since modern economics is built on the core proposition that “increasing wealth will lead to increased welfare or happiness”, this paradox raises an important question: why more wealth does not bring greater happiness [7–10].

Smith [11] pointed out that the high productivity of the market economy is driven by a misleading belief that material wealth brings happiness. “It is this illusion that inspired and maintained the continuous progress of human industry… and thus completely changed the face of the earth.” Therefore, economic development must shift from being oriented toward GDP to orient toward people's livelihood and well-being. GDP is only a part of people's livelihood and well-being, and some parts of GDP also need to be adjusted to form new supply content to maximize well-being.

Correspondingly, urbanization formed on the basis of traditional industrialization models also requires strategic adjustments. Therefore, we must jump out of the traditional disputes over the size of cities, return to the logical starting point of why development and why there are cities, and redefine cities and villages within the framework of ecological civilization.

As Stiglitz [12] pointed out, “GDP is a wrong tool to measure what matters”. It only measures the activity of market transactions. Moreover, these activities are not all activities that fund people's well-being. Part of it is transaction cost; part is invalid activity of “digging and filling trenches” in the Keynesian sense. If measured by the traditional concept of GDP, the larger the city, the higher the per capita GDP. It seems that the larger the city, the more efficient it is. However, once we return to the standard of the fundamental purpose of development, the optimal spatial pattern of urbanization will undergo major changes.

This industrialization perspective and urbanization under ecological civilization are similar to the geocentric theory to the heliocentric theory. Once we look at urbanization from the perspective of traditional industrialization, the concepts of cost, benefit, utility, well-being, and optimization will undergo profound changes. Many standard economic conclusions formed in the traditional industrial era may no longer be applicable.

If measured by GDP, the larger the city, the higher the per capita GDP; however, if measured by the well-being of residents, there is no substantial gap between the residents of small towns and large cities, and even small towns have higher well-being.

We use current international mainstream definitions and research methods on subject well-being (SWB) to measure the well-being of cities of different sizes. According to Easterlin [7], the principal measure of well-being used here is self-reported feelings of satisfaction with life, one of the SWB measures recommended in the recent Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report [13]: All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? Please use this card to help with your answer: 1 “dissatisfied” 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 “satisfied”.

The main results are reported as follows: Due to the mobility of the population, it is difficult to accurately identify where residents live. Therefore, we use the location of the residents' first house as a proxy variable to identify the residence of the residents (the next study needs to be adjusted). It can be seen that the respondents who live in municipalities or provincial capitals or prefecture-level cities represented by the first set of properties were significantly higher than those in counties, towns, or rural areas in 2015 and 2017, but it can be seen in 2019 Respondents in the county seat had the highest life satisfaction, indicating that the happiness of buying a house in the county seat will increase with the growth of the year.

9 Policy Recommendations

The global consensus and actions on carbon neutrality mark the end of the traditional industrial era and the opening of a new era of ecological civilization and green development. This means that the development concepts, resource concepts, development content, business models, institutional mechanisms, etc. established in the traditional industrial era are all facing the most comprehensive and profound changes since the industrial revolution. Correspondingly, the urbanization concepts and models formed in the traditional industrial era need to be comprehensively and profoundly transformed according to the inherent requirements of the new ecological civilization.

9.1 General Idea

First, take the “dual carbon” goal as an important strategic starting point for green urbanization, and promote cities to take the lead in achieving carbon peaks and carbon neutrality in an orderly manner; the key tasks of the first peak cities should be shifted from the production mode at the same time to promote changes in consumption patterns. The existing emission reduction model of carbon peak cities is far from a real green transformation and more of an industrial upgrade in the traditional sense. To this end, we should fully consider the differences in urban carbon peaking paths to establish a diversified and efficient policy and measure system, and encourage the first carbon peak cities to become the vanguard of green and low-carbon development.

Second, take urban renewal as a major opportunity for the transformation of green urbanization, and avoid using the old thinking of the traditional industrial era to renew the city in a new era of ecological civilization. It is not only necessary to establish urban renewal led by the improvement of ecological environment and quality of life, but also to establish a new resource concept in accordance with the new development concept, fully understand the unique cultural and historical value of the old city, and activate it in various forms to transform it into “treasure”. Strictly control large-scale demolition and large-scale construction, and strictly control the urban construction of super high-rise buildings and high-rise residential buildings; adhere to the urban construction principle of keeping, reforming, and demolition at the same time, focusing on preservation and protection, adhere to the urban construction principle of keeping, reforming, and demolition at the same time, focusing on preservation and protection. Make full use of existing buildings in urban renewal to reduce carbon emissions in the process of urban development and construction.

Third, China's urbanization strategy should go beyond the urban size debate in the traditional industrial era and redefine the city under the thinking of ecological civilization. The current urbanization has shown a clear localization trend, and green urbanization in urban agglomerations and counties should be the focus of work, and it should be closely integrated with rural revitalization.

Fourth, we must avoid using the traditional “three rural” concepts and urban perspectives to engage in “rural revitalization”. The countryside is a new ground space, not just a subsidiary of cities and industries. In particular, it is necessary to promote rural revitalization in the context of urban agglomerations and county urbanization, and give full play to the unique advantages of county towns connecting urban and rural areas.

Fifth, in the context of the new development pattern and green urbanization, use a full life cycle and multi-dimensional sustainability perspective (carbon emissions, resource consumption, biodiversity, environmental protection, etc.), as well as economy-society-environment) to rethinking the ecological environmental effects of urban infrastructure and urban buildings. Strictly control the construction of super high-rise buildings and high-rise residential buildings in cities, and reduce the high energy consumption and high resource consumption (such as the strength of building steel) caused by this. Make full use of existing buildings in urban renewal to reduce carbon emissions in the process of urban development and construction. Intensify the transformation of urban green infrastructure. Draw lessons from the devastating rainstorm disaster in Zhengzhou, increase the construction and management of the urban stormwater system, and improve urban resilience in the context of climate change.

9.2 Specific Areas: Four Policy Pillars

Policy Pillar One: Suggestions on Urban Renewal and Green Transformation of Old Urban Areas

• (1) Establish a transformation target system led by environmental improvement and life quality improvement

  • Each city should focus on the improvement of urban economic quality, humanistic quality, ecological quality, quality of life, etc., overall design strategies and policy measures for urban renewal and green transformation of old urban areas, determine an environmental improvement indicator system, and effectively propose improvements, concrete measures for people’s livelihood and well-being.

  • Strengthen the protection and restoration of urban biodiversity in the transformation process, incorporate biodiversity and ecosystem services into the scope of urban planning and transformation plan design, and promote the pilot and promotion of related projects by local and municipal government agencies. The level of urbanization develops a specific plan for the optimal allocation of natural capital (ecosystem services).

• (2) Design a roadmap with the goal of implementing the transformation and upgrading effects and benefits

  • Build a comprehensive evaluation system based on actual results, clarify work ideas and key links, avoid blindly “promoting civil engineering” and “doing fast”, focusing on key areas, and striving to use “micro-renovation” to drive “big improvement”.

  • Through the establishment of a new environmental market to give value to ecosystem services, encourage social capital to invest in natural capital, improve resource and capital allocation efficiency and construction effectiveness, introduce public and financial policies, formulate market incentives, and encourage social capital to do Renovation and upgrading provide project-based technological innovation and lowest cost solutions.

• (3) Customize a systematic green transformation plan according to local conditions

  • According to regional classifications such as basic, perfect, and upgrade, determine the detailed list of renovation content, standards and support policies, and specify the content and key tasks of renovation and upgrade based on the region.

  • Incorporate environmental protection and promotion into the assessment scope of urban green transformation, set environmental improvement and environmental governance assessment indicators, establish an effective supervision mechanism, and comprehensively improve the long-term effects of green transformation.

  • Establish a people-oriented participation mechanism for extensively soliciting public opinions, unblock online and offline information interaction channels, sink the power of suggestions to the community and the scene, deepen the community discussion and consultation mechanism, stimulate the enthusiasm of social participation, and establish a sound, open, transparent, and open participation, People's livelihood-oriented transformation work coordination mechanism.

  • Explore the “government + residents + enterprise” co-construction and shared governance model, focus on the improvement of both the hard facilities and soft environment of old communities, and create a long-term mechanism for regional environmental protection and improvement.

Policy Pillar Two: Suggestions on How the Cities Take the Lead in Peaking and Carbon Neutral

• (1) It is necessary to fully consider the differences in the path of urban carbon peaks to establish a diversified and efficient policy and measure system

  • The competent departments of provinces and cities should be encouraged to plan, design, and formulate policies and measures that suit the needs of local cities for carbon peaking in accordance with local conditions and the resource endowment, industrialization process, and socio-economic conditions of each city.

  • Support all provinces and cities to adopt different low-carbon paths and measures around the common goal and orientation of national carbon peaking, taking into account overall considerations and individual development requirements at the overall level, and formulating a roadmap and timetable for urban carbon peaking to make clear the progress and steps of carbon peaks in various cities.

  • Take practical measures to avoid “big pot of rice”, “one size fits all” and “release satellites”, and achieve the peak of the echelon according to the development situation. Provide practical guidance and requirements for underdeveloped regions, determine a peak timetable based on actual conditions, provide a greater adjustment period and buffer period, and avoid a politically correct carbon neutral leap.

• (2) Encourage active carbon peak cities to become the vanguard of green and low-carbon development

  • Issue guidance to encourage active carbon peak cities to establish a strong peak goal, and try to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutral targets faster and deeper, so as to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals for China as a whole to create an advance amount for the target and create more room for emission reduction in underdeveloped regions.

  • Introduce incentive policies to encourage qualified and proactive carbon peak cities to further strengthen the green and low-carbon transformation, and use the perspective of ecological civilization to solve the problem of inadequate balance between urban economic development and ecological environmental protection in the construction of new urbanization. Create a benchmark and demonstration for cultivating new drivers of green economic growth, and carbon provides construction experience and work guidance for other cities.

• (3) Promote natural carbon peak cities to make up for short-slab corner overtaking

  • Carry out special guidance to guide passive carbon peak cities to face the main reasons for the decline in carbon emissions, carefully analyze the development problems caused by the lack of traditional economic growth and insufficient kinetic energy in the process of industrialization, and encourage local and municipal authorities to focus on solving the problems faced by the promotion of emerging green technologies. Institutional and mechanism barriers and other issues, re-search for local city carbon peak carbon neutral development endowments and advantages, under the premise of building an ecological civilization, and gradually strengthen the core capabilities of green development.

  • Guide the natural carbon peak cities to regard the carbon peak carbon neutral target as a new development opportunity, and take the green and low-carbon development as the guide, and gradually move from less emission, slow emission, and emission reduction to carbon neutrality, in an orderly manner Start the transformation and upgrading work led by green and low-carbon development.

  • Natural carbon peak cities should adhere to the drive of technological innovation and technological innovation, attach great importance to the application and promotion of low-cost, small and fast green applicable technologies, and use green technologies with great potential and low difficulty as a breakthrough to open up the city as a whole A breakthrough point in the transformation to achieve sustainable green development.

Policy Pillar Three: Suggestions for County-Level Green Urbanization Development Strategy

• (1) Improve the county-level urbanization development strategy system

  • Research and formulate specific and targeted development strategies, and earnestly promote the construction of policies in the fields of industry, agriculture, municipal administration, education, medical care, pension, and employment in counties and cities, and clarify effective paths to narrow the gap between urban and rural social undertakings, and promote The overall upgrading plan and planning construction will promote the construction and upgrading of new towns with intensive resources, interaction between industry and city, ecological livability, and harmony between natural and social environments.

  • Focus on solving problems such as the lack of institutional mechanisms that are common in grassroots reforms, and encourage counties and cities to jointly formulate action plans to coordinate the integration and improvement of county-level urban industries, economic structures, public services, social undertakings, and the ecological environment.

  • According to the national land use plan, formulate policies for local cities to utilize natural capital, create landscape economic development strategies, and encourage qualified counties and cities to build new green service industries such as agricultural tourism and ecotourism based on actual conditions, so as to achieve environmental protection and economic development The depth of integration.

• (2) Promote the transformation and upgrading of core green elements

  • Accelerate the reform of the rural land requisition system and land circulation system, appropriately increase farmers’ rights to autonomous land transactions, and combine the vitalization of land resources with agricultural transformation and upgrading, industrial layout adjustment, farmers’ employment and continuous income growth, and enable farmers Urbanization is synchronized with land urbanization and industrial urbanization.

  • Customize the industrial adjustment plan in the county urbanization strategy, cluster the rural population in county towns or small towns based on industrial function classification, scientifically promote the expansion of small town industries and public service functions, and build a basic system for green development.

  • Forming the effects of agricultural economies of scale, focusing on the development of mechanized agriculture, green agriculture and modern and efficient agriculture, and finally forming a new urban–rural integration pattern of urban–rural interaction, mutual benefit, mutual promotion, and mutual benefit in the coordinated development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in county areas.

  • With county towns and central towns as the growth points of new urbanization, establish and improve a policy system and a unified evaluation system suitable for the green development of county urbanization in the region, and give full play to the county’s industries, elements, and resources between cities and townships. The cohesive functions of configuration and other aspects promote the simultaneous development of cities and villages.

Policy Pillar Four: Suggestions for the Revitalization of Green Villages

• (1) Deeply carry out theoretical research and practice of agricultural green transformation and upgrading

  • Analyze and study the construction achievements and challenges of “modern agriculture”, sublate the development model of “modern agriculture” characterized by industrialized agriculture and chemical agriculture, and promote the transformation and upgrading of rural areas to green ecological agriculture.

  • Promote the research on the practical methods and paths of rural green development in an orderly manner, highlight the characteristics of agricultural production, rural housing, ecological environmental protection and the inheritance of agricultural civilization, and improve and enrich the research category, theory and methodology system of ecological civilization.

  • Combining the research on the hollowing out of rural human resources, carry out rural talent cultivation projects, accelerate the flow of urban and rural talents, agricultural vocational training and skill training, conduct qualification certification for qualified farmers, and formulate and issue urban capital to invest in rural development. Support policies and management policies, create pilot demonstration models, open up investment channels, and promote the construction of rural technology and talent systems.

• (2) Establish and improve the rural green development planning system

  • Improve the systemicity, scientificity, operability, sustainability, and appraisal of the planning and design of “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” in various regions, and effectively enhance the overall planning and system solution construction capabilities of various regions.

  • Break the current situation of excessive and detailed professional planning, realize the organic integration of planning, connect and link with town planning, comprehensively cover all aspects of rural green development, and create a planning system for urban and rural coordinated development.

  • The county level plans to make overall plans for rural green development and implement management, scientifically demonstrate, fully refine, and strengthen planning implementation and implementation supervision and management.

• (3) Promote the construction of rural integrated development model

  • Redefine rural green development from a new perspective, assist cities in clarifying their own advantages in green development, new ideas, new resources, new models, and new content, expand green development space, and help developed regions adopt green development. Leapfrog development.

  • Adhere to the “one pole, multiple wings” construction model led by green development and supported by diversified development, guide the countryside to promote ecological resources and transform ecological advantages into economic resources and industrial advantages according to local conditions, promote global tourism and build beautiful pastoral and beauty. The combination of rural areas, rural ecological environmental protection, rural environmental improvement, and the development of characteristic rural economy will realize the development of moderately large-scale rural industries in various forms that are guided by green agriculture.

  • Intensify the “Internet+” and “Science and Technology+” services for rural green development, improve the level and quality of scientific and technological assistance to agriculture, encourage the construction and development of various new forms of business in rural areas, and promote agriculture to rely on informatization, market demand, and technical demand. The seamless docking of talent needs, deep integration of agriculture, forestry, culture, tourism, processing and other industries, to create a green agricultural industry chain, promote the transformation of agriculture into a comprehensive industry, and promote the joint development of efficient ecological agriculture and emerging rural service industries.