IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v14y2025i4p910-d1639264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Does Land Urbanization Affect Carbon Emissions in China? Evidence from 209 Cities and Three Heterogeneous Regions in the East of the Hu Line of China

Author

Listed:
  • Hanlong Gu

    (College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
    National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Use of Soil and Fertilizer, Shenyang 110866, China)

  • Xueting Chen

    (College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
    National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Use of Soil and Fertilizer, Shenyang 110866, China)

  • Haohang Sun

    (College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
    National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Use of Soil and Fertilizer, Shenyang 110866, China)

  • Chongyang Huan

    (College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
    National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Use of Soil and Fertilizer, Shenyang 110866, China)

  • Bingyi Wang

    (College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
    National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Use of Soil and Fertilizer, Shenyang 110866, China)

Abstract

Land urbanization (LU) is a defining feature of China’s urbanization process and has led to significant carbon emission challenges. To clarify the interaction mechanism between LU and carbon emissions (CEs), this study examines the temporal and spatial characteristics of LU and CEs as well as the direct and spatial spillover effects in the east of the Hu Line. Specifically, three representative regions are selected for heterogeneity analysis: the Three Northeast Provinces region (TNP), the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region (BTH), and the Southeast Coastal region (SC). The findings are as follows: (1) Both LU and CEs exhibited consistent upward trends, with average annual growth rates of 4.3% and 3.5%, respectively. (2) Empirical results demonstrate that the direct and indirect effect coefficients of LU on CEs are 0.129 and −0.224, respectively. (3) The direct effect of LU on CEs is significantly positive in both the TNP and the SC, with respective coefficients of 0.336 and 0.177. Notably, a positive spatial spillover effect is observed exclusively in the TNP, with a coefficient of 0.174. In contrast, LU exerts no significant influence on CEs in the BTH. The research findings offer valuable insights into the formulation of differentiated urbanization policies and effective carbon emission reduction policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanlong Gu & Xueting Chen & Haohang Sun & Chongyang Huan & Bingyi Wang, 2025. "How Does Land Urbanization Affect Carbon Emissions in China? Evidence from 209 Cities and Three Heterogeneous Regions in the East of the Hu Line of China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-24, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:4:p:910-:d:1639264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/4/910/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/4/910/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jianjun Wang & Li Li & Fan Zhang & Qiannan Xu, 2014. "Carbon Emissions Abatement Cost in China: Provincial Panel Data Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(5), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Hanlong Gu & Jiabin Li & Shuai Wang, 2024. "Multi-Scenario Simulation of Land Use/Cover Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Reserve Response in Liaoning Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Tan, Xianchun & Dong, Lele & Chen, Dexue & Gu, Baihe & Zeng, Yuan, 2016. "China’s regional CO2 emissions reduction potential: A study of Chongqing city," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1345-1354.
    4. Fan, Maoyong & He, Guojun & Zhou, Maigeng, 2020. "The winter choke: Coal-Fired heating, air pollution, and mortality in China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Weisong Li & Jiahui Wu & Liyan Yang & Wanxu Chen & Xinghua Cui & Mingyu Lin, 2024. "Spatial Variations in Relationships between Urbanization and Carbon Emissions in Chinese Urban Agglomerations," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Zhang, Chuanguo & Lin, Yan, 2012. "Panel estimation for urbanization, energy consumption and CO2 emissions: A regional analysis in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 488-498.
    7. Li, Ke & Lin, Boqiang, 2015. "Impacts of urbanization and industrialization on energy consumption/CO2 emissions: Does the level of development matter?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1107-1122.
    8. Hanlong Gu & Yiying Liu & Fengkui Qian & Qiubing Wang & Xiuru Dong, 2021. "An Empirical Analysis of the Factors Affecting Farmer Satisfaction Under the China Link Policy," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    9. Wang, Qiang & Wu, Shi-dai & Zeng, Yue-e & Wu, Bo-wei, 2016. "Exploring the relationship between urbanization, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in different provinces of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1563-1579.
    10. Xu, Bin & Lin, Boqiang, 2015. "How industrialization and urbanization process impacts on CO2 emissions in China: Evidence from nonparametric additive regression models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 188-202.
    11. Sharma, Susan Sunila, 2011. "Determinants of carbon dioxide emissions: Empirical evidence from 69 countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 376-382, January.
    12. Wang, Shaojian & Fang, Chuanglin & Guan, Xingliang & Pang, Bo & Ma, Haitao, 2014. "Urbanisation, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions in China: A panel data analysis of China’s provinces," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 738-749.
    13. Zhao, Jun & Jiang, Qingzhe & Dong, Xiucheng & Dong, Kangyin, 2021. "Assessing energy poverty and its effect on CO2 emissions: The case of China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    14. Du, Limin & Hanley, Aoife & Zhang, Ning, 2016. "Environmental technical efficiency, technology gap and shadow price of coal-fuelled power plants in China: A parametric meta-frontier analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 14-32.
    15. Shanshan Guo & Yanfang Zhang & Xiangyan Qian & Zhang Ming & Rui Nie, 2019. "Urbanization and CO2 emissions in resource-exhausted cities: evidence from Xuzhou city, China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 99(2), pages 807-826, November.
    16. Shi, Kaifang & Chen, Yun & Li, Linyi & Huang, Chang, 2018. "Spatiotemporal variations of urban CO2 emissions in China: A multiscale perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 218-229.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lapatinas, Athanasios & Garas, Antonios & Boleti, Eirini & Kyriakou, Alexandra, 2019. "Economic complexity and environmental performance: Evidence from a world sample," MPRA Paper 92833, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Wang, Shaojian & Xie, Zihan & Wu, Rong & Feng, Kuishang, 2022. "How does urbanization affect the carbon intensity of human well-being? A global assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    3. Wang, Wei-Zheng & Liu, Lan-Cui & Liao, Hua & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2021. "Impacts of urbanization on carbon emissions: An empirical analysis from OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. Rafiq, Shuddhasattwa & Nielsen, Ingrid & Smyth, Russell, 2017. "Effect of internal migration on the environment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 31-44.
    5. Li, Ke & Lin, Boqiang, 2015. "Impacts of urbanization and industrialization on energy consumption/CO2 emissions: Does the level of development matter?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1107-1122.
    6. Kizito Uyi Ehigiamusoe & Hooi Hooi Lean & Sotheeswari Somasundram, 2024. "Analysis of the environmental impacts of the agricultural, industrial, and financial sectors in Malaysia," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(5), pages 2329-2356, August.
    7. Liobikienė, Genovaitė & Butkus, Mindaugas, 2019. "Scale, composition, and technique effects through which the economic growth, foreign direct investment, urbanization, and trade affect greenhouse gas emissions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1310-1322.
    8. Franco, Sainu & Mandla, Venkata Ravibabu & Ram Mohan Rao, K., 2017. "Urbanization, energy consumption and emissions in the Indian context A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 898-907.
    9. Li, Kunming & Fang, Liting & He, Lerong, 2019. "How population and energy price affect China's environmental pollution?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 386-396.
    10. Zhenkai Yang & Mei-Chih Wang & Tsangyao Chang & Wing-Keung Wong & Fangjhy Li, 2022. "Which Factors Determine CO 2 Emissions in China? Trade Openness, Financial Development, Coal Consumption, Economic Growth or Urbanization: Quantile Granger Causality Test," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, March.
    11. Yi Xiao & Yuantao Liao & Zhe Li & Zhuojun Li & Shaojian Wang, 2023. "Impacts of Land Urbanization on CO 2 Emissions: Policy Implications Based on Developmental Stages," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-15, October.
    12. Yan-Qing Kang & Tao Zhao & Peng Wu, 2016. "Impacts of energy-related CO 2 emissions in China: a spatial panel data technique," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 81(1), pages 405-421, March.
    13. Dong, Xiao-Ying & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Would income inequality affect electricity consumption? Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 215-227.
    14. Yannan Zhou & Jixia Huang & Mingxiang Huang & Yicheng Lin, 2019. "The Driving Forces of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent Emissions Have Spatial Spillover Effects in Inner Mongolia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-14, May.
    15. Lin, Boqiang & Li, Zheng, 2020. "Is more use of electricity leading to less carbon emission growth? An analysis with a panel threshold model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    16. Hussain Ali Bekhet & Nor Salwati Othman & Tahira Yasmin, 2020. "Interaction Between Environmental Kuznet Curve and Urban Environment Transition Hypotheses in Malaysia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(1), pages 384-402.
    17. Niu, Honglei & Lekse, William, 2017. "Carbon emission effect of urbanization at regional level: Empirical evidence from China," Economics Discussion Papers 2017-62, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    18. Ren, Yi-Shuai & Kuang, Xianhua & Klein, Tony, 2024. "Does the urban–rural income gap matter for rural energy poverty?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    19. Yang, Xue & Wang, Shaojian & Zhang, Wenzhong & Li, Jiaming & Zou, Yafeng, 2016. "Impacts of energy consumption, energy structure, and treatment technology on SO2 emissions: A multi-scale LMDI decomposition analysis in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 714-726.
    20. Wang, Zhaohua & Rasool, Yasir & Zhang, Bin & Ahmed, Zahoor & Wang, Bo, 2020. "Dynamic linkage among industrialisation, urbanisation, and CO2 emissions in APEC realms: Evidence based on DSUR estimation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 382-389.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:4:p:910-:d:1639264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.