China's Carbon Emissions and Low-Carbon Development

Recently, the monograph China's Carbon Emissions and Low-Carbon Development has been officially released by Science Press. Centered on low-carbon development, this monograph conducts systematic research on pivotal issues including the correlations between carbon emissions and modes of economic growth, household consumption, key industrial sectors, urbanization, transportation, regional development, international trade, relevant technologies and policies, as well as low-carbon urban construction. Following an in-depth analysis of the dynamic shifts in carbon dioxide emissions across diverse sectors and fields, it puts forward low-carbon development recommendations tailored for the pre-peak and post-peak phases of China's carbon emissions respectively. As domestic and international circumstances evolve, low-carbon development has evolved from an international emission-reduction requirement stemming from global climate change negotiations into an endogenous driving force for China's domestic transformation, and it has become an indispensable prerequisite to realize coordinated advancement across the economy, climate, environment and society. As the world's largest carbon emitter, China will remain trapped by high-carbon lock-in effects in the coming period amid ongoing progress in urbanization, industrialization, internationalization and modernization. The country is confronted with multiple unavoidable challenges inherent to its development stage: its total carbon emissions are approaching the peaking point, coal dominates its energy consumption mix, relevant technologies lag behind advanced global benchmarks, carbon emission levels vary sharply across different regions, and carbon-intensive infrastructure keeps expanding alongside advancing urbanization. Hence, low-carbon development needs to be embedded in major national development strategies and policymaking, and serve as an overarching guideline for landmark initiatives such as ecological civilization development and new-type urbanization construction. Target readers of this publication include government officials working within the energy and environmental sectors, enterprise managers, faculty members and students from higher education institutions, scientific researchers and other relevant practitioners. Professor Yiming Wei, Director of the Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Economics and Environmental Management, led the research work that culminated in this monograph.