Correction Factor for Mitigating the ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Phenomenon in Assessing Low-Carbon City Performance

Performance assessment of low carbon cities (LCCs) attracts great interest and attention from academia, industry, and government as an effective measure to promote urban low-carbon development. However, the efforts of LCCs could be misinterpreted without consideration of the fact that cities with different endowments face different challenges and assume different responsibilities, thus it is important that this fact is considered in assessing LCCs’ performance. This study develops the previous study by the research team, “dual perspective diagnosis method for assessing LCC performance”, by introducing a correction factor to take into account the impacts of local endowments and mitigate the ‘one-size-fits-all’ phenomenon when comparing LCC assessments between cities. The empirical case study presented in the paper indicates that the adoption of a correction factor has improved the accuracy of the assessment results by demonstrating actual management efforts in developing LCC performance. It is proposed that applying the correction factor can help to achieve more accurate assessments of the status of low-carbon city practice, based on which more effective low-carbon policies can be designed and implemented towards achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.