Spatial Analysis on the Role of Multi-Dimensional Urbanizations in Carbon Emissions: Evidence from China

Using the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 1997 to 2015, this paper studies the impacts of urbanization on carbon emission. We use the entropy weight method to measure the weight of the indicator to evaluate four-dimensional urbanizations, including population, economic, consumption and living urbanization. In addition, we investigated the spatial correlation of carbon emissions, taking the spatial differences into consideration. The spatial Durbin model is finally selected to analyze the impacts of urbanizations on carbon emission. The conclusions are: Firstly, from the results of the panel data model, the four dimensions of urbanization all play a significant role in promoting carbon emissions in the whole regions. However, in eastern China, central China and western China, four dimensions of urbanization have different impacts on carbon emissions. Secondly, from Moran’s I of carbon emissions from 1997 to 2015 in China, we conclude that carbon emissions in China present a significant spatial aggregation. Thirdly, from the results of spatial econometrics model, population urbanization only promotes local carbon emissions. Economic urbanization and consumption urbanization promote local carbon emissions and reduce carbon emissions in its neighboring provinces. Living urbanization promotes both local carbon emissions and its neighboring provinces’ carbon emissions. This paper proposes some recommendations for the carbon emission decreasing during urbanization. First, establishment and improvement of coordination mechanisms and information sharing mechanisms across regions should also be considered. Second, control population growth reasonably and optimize population structure in order to achieve an orderly flow and rational distribution of the population. Third, the assessment mechanism of the local government should include not only economic indicators but also other indicators.