The Impact of Urbanization on Carbon Emissions in China: Based on Provincial Panel Data

With the worsening of the global environment, the problem of global climate change that caused by the emissions of greenhouse gases has aroused wide attention from all over the world. As the world's largest carbon emitter, China is experiencing tremendous international pressure to reduce emissions. It is necessary to research the specific influence and the regional difference of urbanization on carbon emissions in our country, and it is significant on promoting the development of urbanizations in our country and achieving goals of emissions reduction. This paper selects the panel data of 30 provinces of China from 1997 to 2014, and studies the influence of urbanization on the carbon dioxide emission and the regional differences. The result shows that there is an inverted U-shaped pattern between urbanization and carbon emissions in China. The low urbanization level regions negatively affected carbon emissions while the high and middle urbanization level regions positively affected carbon emissions. This study concludes that it is necessary for China to take a path of low-carbon urbanization that match the characteristics of environmental resources and the level of economic development.