Pursuing sustainable urbanization with the decoupled urbanization-emission nexus: evidence from Chinese provinces

The urbanization-emission nexus has aroused increasing concern and been widely discussed in academia and practice. However, previous studies have remained disputable and often overlooked the mediating role of government intervention, which is not compatible with China’s unique top-down urbanization model. Using the cross-provincial panel data of China, this chapter examines the Kuznets relation between urbanization and emissions with the considerations about heterogeneity and mechanisms involved, aiming to establish a holistic analytical framework concerning the environmental effect of urbanization. It is concluded that: firstly, the inverted-U-shaped impacts of urbanization on both haze pollution and carbon emission are substantiated. The urbanization-emission decoupling for the former emerges in over half of provinces, while the decoupling for the latter is not observed widely in China. Secondly, the study highlights the heterogeneity of such impacts, which are more significant for PM2.5 concentration and relatively least significant across the western region of China. Finally, it identifies two effective mechanisms for facilitating the decoupling: increasing fiscal expenditure on science and technology and on environmental protection. The study enriches our understanding of the urbanization-emission nexus, and emphasizes the critical role of government intervention in pursuing sustainable urbanization in China.