Understanding the relation between the socio-economic development and CO2 emission of 76 contracting countries in The Paris Agreement

This study aims to introduce a novel coupling coordination degree (CCD) model to evaluate the degree of coupling coordination between socio-economic development and CO2 emission of 76 contracting countries in The Paris Agreement. The efficiency of the novel CCD model is demonstrated by scenario analysis in the contracting countries during the period between 2005 and 2015 on the basis of the theory of environmental Kuznets curve. The following results are obtained. Firstly, the subjectivity of the traditional CCD model contaminates the robustness of the evaluation. Secondly, the novel CCD of contracting countries during the survey period ranged between approximately 0.35 and 0.4, which is in the overall development stage of low coordination. Thirdly, the novel CCD of the two systems at the global level is not symmetrical in spatial distribution, and the European continent is generally higher than the African, while other continents sit on an intermediate level. Lastly, the novel CCD between socio-economy and CO2 emission systems presents a positive correlation with regional resident income in groups with varied income levels. The findings of this research provide rich policy references for facilitating global climate cooperation by balancing socio-economic development with CO2 emission mitigation.