How has China's urban compactness affected urban CO2 abatement costs?

Kai Yin and Xin Yao

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2025, vol. 211, issue C

Abstract: While many studies highlight the substantial emissions reduction potential of compact urban structures, their economic implications for carbon abatement are often overlooked. Unlike conventional approaches that focus solely on emissions, the concept of the marginal carbon abatement cost offers a more comprehensive framework, addressing both emissions reduction and broader economic impacts. This research applies a convex quantile regression method to account for factors such as low efficiency, noise interference, and overlooked emission reduction potential, which tend to overestimate the marginal carbon abatement cost. The results indicate that the average urban marginal carbon abatement cost in Chinese cities is 222.47 yuan/ton. This research first measure urban compactness and urban marginal carbon abatement cost across Chinese cities, respectively, and then explore the nexus between them. The findings reveal a statistically significant negative relationship, supported by robustness tests. Mechanism analysis suggests that this impact is driven by technological innovation and industrial structure optimization. The reduction in abatement costs is more pronounced in western cities, medium- and small-sized cities, and cities less dependent on resource-based industries. This study provides insights into compact urban development and offers a new perspective on carbon reduction strategies.

Keywords: Urban compactness; Marginal CO2 abatement cost; Convex quantile regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032124009419
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:211:y:2025:i:c:s1364032124009419

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.115215

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().