Abstract
China has committed to ambitious targets to reduce its carbon emissions in the next decades, in order to combat climate change and improve the environment. The realization of the targets depends on the fair and effective mitigation plans of all provinces. However, with varying ecological and environmental conditions and social-economic development, it is a critical issue to quantify the provinces’ efforts equally. This paper proposed a comprehensive fE index in coordinating ecology, equity and economy, by accounting for carbon emissions and sinks to characterize provincial carbon emission status in China, from 2000 to 2017, which shows a spatial pattern of “boundary high, central low”. The provinces with higher fE value (>1.5) in boundary areas can be seen as “relative equality” provinces with good ecology circulation, equity and economic efficiency. The provinces with lower fE value (<0.7) in central areas around Bohai Bay are regarded as “severe inequality” provinces, and are identified as the hot-spot provinces, which have emitted more CO2 than their equity share by occupying the carbon emission space of other provinces in recent decades. These results could provide a reference for a provincial guide for carbon reduction and sustainable development of the low-carbon economy.
Highlights
Anthropogenic carbon emission since the industrial revolution has led to severe consequences for the environment and society [1]
This paper aims to provide a new perspective on the analysis of the spatial pattern of carbon emissions in China, coordinating the aspects of ecology, equity, and economy by accounting for carbon sinks
The total carbon emissions and carbon sink capacity of each province, from 2000 to 2017, were calculated based on Equations (1) to (4), and results are listed in Table A1, and plotted in Figures 1 and 2, respectively
Summary
Anthropogenic carbon emission since the industrial revolution has led to severe consequences for the environment and society [1]. Carbon emission has caught global attention, and it is essential to reduce it to acceptable levels in order to eliminate the harmful effects on the environment [4]. In 2015, the Paris agreement was reached, which was committed to “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below. ◦ C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ◦ C above pre-industrial levels.”. As the largest carbon emitter in the world [6,7], has committed a series of stringent carbon mitigation policies aiming “to reduce carbon emissions intensity by 40–45% by 2020 from the 2005 ◦ C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ◦ C above pre-industrial levels.” It set out to improve and replace the Tokyo Protocol by abandoning the “top-down” international distributions, and encouraged the formulation of a “bottom-up” system through formulating the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) [5].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
