The Impacts of City Size and Density on CO2 Emissions: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

• Published in: Applied spatial analysis and policy Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 529 - 555
• Main Authors: Ma, Mengyue, Rozema, Jaap, Gianoli, Alberto, Zhang, Wanshun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Cities; Demographic change; Emissions control; Human Geography; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Population; Population density; Population growth; Population number; Regional/Spatial Science; Rivers; Social Sciences; Spatial analysis; Urban areas; Urbanization; Yangtze River Delta; Yangtze River; Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration; Urban form; CO; City size; emissions; City density
• ISSN: 1874-463X; 1874-4621
• DOI: 10.1007/s12061-021-09406-2

With rapid urbanization, cities plays an increasingly key role in addressing CO 2 emission-related issues. This study aims at analysing the spatial relation between city size and CO 2 emissions in the case of Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) in China over the years from 2006 to 2016, making a contribution to the existing body of knowledge of the relationships between urban form and CO 2 emissions. This paper identified the following main findings: (1) There is a U-shape relationship between population size and CO 2 emissions in YRDUA; (2) There is a negative sublinear relationship between CO 2 emissions and city density in YRDUA; (3) The ideal urban form for low CO 2 performance in YRDUA is 2.716 million people living in high population density; (4) Increasing population size is an effective but not a long-term approach for CO 2 emissions reduction, because for every marginal increase of city density, the marginal reduction of CO 2 emission will decrease. (5) A demographic change in YRDUA from low-density cities to high-density cities would benefit CO 2 emission performance. These findings confirm the important roles of population size and density for CO 2 emissions reduction in urban agglomeration and so help shape current policy debates.