Abstract:

This study analyzed the mechanism of how urbanization affects carbon emissions from the three aspects of scale, structure and efficiency in theory. Then the 1978-2012 data are used to analyze the influence of the urbanization on carbon emissions from the aspects of scale effect, structure effect and technology effect by the method of Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI). According to the LMDI decomposition results, economic growth is the main factor of increasing per capita CO₂ emissions; and structural adjustment in the process of urbanization is the main factor of decreasing per capita CO₂ emissions; technology effect in the process of urbanization is lowering per capita CO₂ emissions, but a less extent compared with structure effect. Also, the results suggest that effects of changes in the structure of industry are becoming more and more important, and if China wants to achieve a low-carbon urbanization, there needs to be fully tap to play a technical effect by improving energy efficiency and emission reduction ability.

Key words: urbanization, carbon emissions, decoupling, LMDI, mechanism