The impact of land urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions in the Yangtze River Delta, China: A multiscale perspective

Urban areas have become one of the main sources of CO2 emissions. Considering the spatial interactions between county scale and prefectural scale divisions and spatial spillover effects, this study employed a hierarchical spatial autoregressive model to investigate the impact of land urbanization on CO2 emissions in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) during 1995-2015. The results showed that CO2 emissions exhibited spatial clustering across the counties and prefectural cities in the YRD region. The prefectural cities with the High-High type were mainly concentrated in Shanghai, Suzhou and Nantong during 1995-2015, indicating that they were the main areas that required CO2 emissions reduction. Land urbanization has a positive effect on CO2 emissions; there is an inverse U-shaped relationship between land urbanization and CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions presented spatiotemporal variations between the county and prefectural scales in the YRD region. The spatial interactions between county scale and prefectural scale suggest that local governments should integrate their neighboring governments (higher and lower governments) to reduce CO2 emissions in the YRD. The population, GDP per capita, carbon intensity, and spatial factor also played a significant role in reducing CO2 emissions. The results provide useful information for low-carbon urbanization development in the YRD.