Greenhouse Gas Inventory Evaluation of Low-Carbon Cities in the Context of Spatial Planning: A Case Study of Shenzhen, China

With the lack of city-level Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventories, clear evaluation criteria, and periodic feedback of evaluation indicators, it is challenging to understand well the low-carbon cities' development processes. To achieve the low-carbon cities' GHG emission reduction targets, it is necessary to pay attention to the connection between spatial planning and GHG inventory. Based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) GHG inventory, this article sets up a four-step evaluation system with 32 indicators. The evaluation indicators together with qualitative and quantitative assessment methods were applied to the low-carbon case study of the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Our main findings include that (1) Shenzhen's low-carbon score was 39 in 2018, 21 in 2019, and 71 in 2020. The magnitude of its low-carbon score change is very large, which emphasizes the importance of timely and periodic feedbacks of evaluation indicators; (2) based on IPCC GHG inventory, GHG emission/sink sources are clarified into point sources, line sources, and area sources. To mitigate the GHG impacts from point sources, line sources, and area sources, such spatial planning and land-use management measures as adjusting the land intensity, optimizing the land structure and land layout, and controlling the land scale can be, respectively, considered.