Examining the Impacts of Economic, Social, and Environmental Factors on the Relationship between Urbanization and CO 2 Emissions

Yang Ding, Qing Yang and Lanjuan Cao
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Yang Ding: School of Economics and Management, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan 430070, China
Qing Yang: School of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Lanjuan Cao: School of Safety Science and Emergency Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-23

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between urbanization, economic growth, industrial transformation, technological change, public services, demographical change, urban and natural environmental changes, and carbon emissions using a dataset of 182 prefecture-level cities in China between 2001 and 2010. Specifically, this paper differs from previous studies in two aspects. First, the extant literature has focused on how economic processes accompanying rapid urbanization affect carbon emissions in urban areas but gives little attention to the other dimensions of urbanization, including social and environmental changes, which may have important effects on carbon emissions. We assessed the effects of 17 key processes accompanying urbanization in a full range of economic, social, and environmental dimensions on carbon dioxide emissions in urban areas. The results showed that social processes accompanied with rapid urbanization had distinct effects on carbon emissions, compared to economic and environmental processes. Specifically, improvement in public services, indicated by education and cultural developments, reduces the increase in carbon emissions during urbanization, while economic growth and urban construction reinforces the growth in carbon emissions. Second, we examined the impact of various urbanization processes on carbon dioxide emissions using a unique dataset of 182 prefecture-level cities that covers a wide span of regions in China. The results of our analyses on the city level have important implications for the formulation of comprehensive policies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emission in urban areas, focusing on different urbanization processes in economic, social, and environmental phases.

Keywords: CO 2 emissions; urbanization; industrialization; moderating effect; panel data modeling; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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