An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Urban Spatial Form and CO 2 in Chinese Cities

Yanchun Yi, Sisi Ma, Weijun Guan and Ke Li
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Yanchun Yi: School of Economics and Management, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi 435002, China
Sisi Ma: School of Economics and Management, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi 435002, China
Weijun Guan: School of Economics and Management, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi 435002, China
Ke Li: Key Laboratory of High Performance Computing and Stochastic Information Processing (HPCSIP) (Ministry of Education of China), College of Mathematics and Computer Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: Although several studies have explained the effect of urbanization on China’s carbon emissions, most have focused on population urbanization, while ignoring the urban spatial form. This study investigates the impact of urban spatial form, measured by residential density, on the evolution of carbon emissions of 108 cities from 2003 to 2013 in China. The main results are as follows: (1) although urbanization significantly increases CO 2 emissions, urban spatial form measured by residential density produces a negative effect on CO 2 emissions in China.; (2) China has not become the “pollution haven” of foreign direct investment (FDI), instead, green FDI has reduced carbon emissions significantly; (3) the environmental dividends of low-carbon transformation have been observed in eastern and middle cities, but not in western ones. Therefore, establishing compact cities and traversing a low-carbon path is both feasible and necessary.

Keywords: urbanization; residential density; urban spatial form; carbon emissions; compact cities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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