The effects of urbanization and urban sprawl on CO2 emissions in China

With the steady increase in urbanization that has occurred, China has begun to suffer from serious urban sprawl. Both the increase in urbanization and the subsequent urban sprawl have led to major changes in CO 2 emissions. In this paper, we expand the STIRPAT model to empirically analyse the effects of China’s urbanization and urban sprawl on CO 2 emissions from 1997 to 2018, with regression results showing that both urbanization and urban sprawl have increased CO 2 emissions. Further analyses of the mechanisms indicate that urbanization can increase overall CO 2 emissions by not only increasing industrial CO 2 emissions, but also by increasing construction CO 2 emissions and residential consumption CO 2 emissions as well. Urban sprawl can increase overall carbon emissions by increasing CO 2 emissions from transport, construction and industry. We then make specific suggestions for China’s carbon reduction and low-carbon development based on these findings.