Zheng, Heran;
Zhang, Zengkai;
Dietzenbacher, Erik;
Zhou, Ya;
Többen, Johannes;
Feng, Kuishuang;
Moran, Daniel;
... Guan, Dabo; + view all
(2023)
Leveraging opportunity of low carbon transition by super-emitter cities in China.
Science Bulletin
10.1016/j.scib.2023.08.016.
(In press).
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Abstract
Chinese cities are core in the national carbon mitigation and largely affect global decarbonisation initiatives, yet disparities between cities challenge country-wide progress. Low-carbon transition should preferably lead to a convergence of both equity and mitigation targets among cities. Inter-city supply chains that link the production and consumption of cities are a factor in shaping inequality and mitigation but less considered aggregately. Here, we modelled supply chains of 309 Chinese cities for 2012 to quantify carbon footprint inequality, as well as explored a leverage opportunity to achieve an inclusive low-carbon transition. We revealed significant carbon inequalities: the 10 richest cities in China have per capita carbon footprints comparable to the US level, while half of the Chinese cities sit below the global average. Inter-city supply chains in China, which are associated with 80% of carbon emissions, imply substantial carbon leakage risks and also contribute to socioeconomic disparities. However, the significant carbon inequality implies a leveraging opportunity that substantial mitigation can be achieved by 32 super-emitting cities. If the super-emitting cities adopt their differentiated mitigation pathway based on affluence, industrial structure, and role of supply chains, up to 1.4 Gt carbon quota can be created, raising 30% of the projected carbon quota to carbon peak. The additional carbon quota allows the average living standard of the other 60% of Chinese people to reach an upper-middle-income level, highlighting collaborative mechanism at the city level has a great potential to lead to a convergence of both equity and mitigation targets.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Leveraging opportunity of low carbon transition by super-emitter cities in China |
| Location: | Netherlands |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scib.2023.08.016 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2023.08.016 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science China Press This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Carbon footprint, China, City, Inequality, Mitigation, Multi-regional input-output models (MRIO) |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10176059 |
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