Carbon Pressure and Economic Growth in the Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River: A Study on Decoupling Effect and Driving Factors

Coordination between regional economic development and carbon pressure is essential for sustainable regional development. However, existing research on carbon pressure and studies on the relationship between economic growth and carbon pressure needs to be more comprehensive. This study analyzes the decoupling impact of economic growth and carbon pressure in different regions of urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River by revealing the evolution of the geographical and temporal characteristics of carbon pressure from 2000 to 2020. We investigate the drivers of carbon pressure in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration using the LMDI index decomposition model. The results show that (1) the carbon pressure in the urban agglomeration of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and its three sub-city agglomerations shows a declining tendency at the beginning and later exhibits an increasing tendency; (2) from 2000 to 2020, the carbon pressure of the majority of cities increased, with Wuhan and Ezhou in the high carbon pressure area and Ji’an, Fuzhou, and Shangrao in the carbon sink surplus area; (3) the rate of decoupling climbs from 45% to 96% over time, then declines to 67%, and reaches 90% by 2020; and (4) the most prominent influence on carbon pressure in the 31 cities is energy consumption, followed by economic expansion. The research in this paper is beneficial for cities to explore solutions to coordinate economic development and carbon pressure despite the constraints of imposed by the two.