Research on the effects of urbanization on carbon emissions efficiency of urban agglomerations in China

Abstract

Abstract The effect of urbanization on carbon emissions efficiency is very complex and plays a prominent role in carbon emissions reduction. In this paper, we divide the effect of urbanization on carbon emissions efficiency into four aspects, and bring forward an ideal point cross efficiency (IPCE) model in order to avoid the disadvantage of ‘self-evaluation’ method. We use the model to analyze the carbon emissions efficiency of 10 typical urban agglomerations from 2008 to 2015 in China. The results show that, the carbon emissions efficiency of urban agglomerations in China has not been significantly promoted, and the efficiency from ‘self-evaluation’ method is significantly different from IPCE. The results also indicate that the four effects of urbanization play significantly different roles. Even the same effect affects different urban agglomerations in different ways. Specifically, the population effect and economic effect promote the carbon emissions efficiency of mature urban agglomerations, while reduce that of merging urban agglomerations. The industry effect promotes the efficiency of mature urban agglomerations only. The space expansion reduces the efficiency of merging urban agglomerations only, while the public transportation promotes the efficiency of both kinds of urban agglomerations. Based on the research, we put forward concrete suggestions to enhance carbon emissions efficiency.