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Cities are main carbon emissions generators. Land use changes can not only affect terrestrial ecosystems carbon, but also anthropogenic carbon emissions. However, carbon monitoring at a spatial level is still coarse, and low-carbon land use encounters the challenge of being unable to adjust at the patch scale. This study addresses these limitations by using land-use data and various auxiliary data to explore new methods. The approach involves developing a high-resolution carbon monitoring model and investigating a patch-scale low-carbon land use model by integrating high carbon sink/source images with the Future Land Use Simulation model. Between 2000 and 2020, the results reveal an increasing trend in both carbon emissions and carbon sinks in the Shangyu district. Carbon sinks can only offset approximately 3% of the total carbon emissions. Spatially, the north exhibits net carbon emissions, while the southern region functions more as a carbon sink. A total of 14.5% of the total land area witnessed a change in land-use type, with the transfer-out of cropland constituting the largest area at 96.44 km2, accounting for 50% of the total transferred area. Land-use transfer resulted in an annual increase of 77.72 × 104 t in carbon emissions between 2000 and 2020. Through land-use structure optimisation, carbon emissions are projected to increase by only 7154 t C/year from 2000 to 2030, significantly lower than the amount between 2000 and 2020. Further low-carbon land optimisation at the patch scale can enhance the carbon sink by 129.59 t C/year. The conclusion drawn is that there is considerable potential to reduce carbon emissions through land use control. The new methods developed in our study can effectively contribute to high-resolution carbon monitoring in spatial contexts and support low-carbon land use, promoting the application of low-carbon land use from theory to practice. This will provide technological guidance for land use planning, city planning, and so forth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the inequality characteristics and influencing factors of CO2 emissions per capita (CEPC) is conducive to balancing regional development and CO2 emissions reduction. This study applied the Gini coefficient and Theil index to investigate the CEPC inequalities during 2005–2017 at the county level in Jiangsu Province, China. Considering the spatial spillover and interaction effects, the factors influencing CEPC were analyzed by a hierarchical spatial autoregressive model. The results showed that the inequalities in CEPC first increased and then decreased at the inter-regional, and inter-county levels. The spatial pattern of CEPC was stable, and there was a significantly positive spatial autocorrelation of CEPC at the county level. The High-High type counties were mainly located in Sunan (southern Jiangsu). The spatial interaction effects of the CEPC between the prefecture and county levels indicated that governments at the prefecture level should integrate their county governments to reduce the CEPC. Moreover, carbon intensity, GDP per capita, land urbanization, and industrial structure play an important role in reducing CEPC. Our findings provide a scientific basis for formulating reasonable and effective carbon emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the comprehensive performance of industrial carbon emission has profound significance for improving carbon allowance allocation scheme and achieving the carbon neutrality target. The paper selects 181 enterprises in Zhengzhou as the case, a comprehensive carbon emission performance indicator system and a carbon allowance allocation model were established, and compared with other allocation schemes (historical/baseline method). The results showed that the overall differences in the comprehensive performance evaluation indicator of carbon emissions in typical industries in Zhengzhou were obvious, and there was a correlation with the characteristics of industrial production activities. The overall emission reduction of Zhengzhou was 244.33×103t, and the emission reduction ratio was 7.94% by simulating carbon allowance allocation under the comprehensive performance. The carbon allowance allocation method based on the comprehensive performance has the strongest restraint on the "high emission, low performance" industry, which is more equitable and more conducive to carbon emission reduction. In the future, it will be recommended to give full play to the leading role of the government, implement industrial carbon allowance allocation based on the comprehensive performance evaluation of carbon emissions, to achieve multi–objectives of resource conservation, environmental pollution abatement, and carbon reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the unprecedented rates of climate change, population growth, and natural resources consumption, global food security has emerged as a critical issue in the twenty-first century. Over the past few decades, the African continent has been plagued by serious food insecurity issues, resulting from poverty and mismanagement of resources. Recent studies have suggested that a comprehensive assessment of food security in Africa and an investigation into the factors that affect the food self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) are increasingly essential. Estimating variations of SSR throughout Africa together with examining its affecting mechanisms is thought to be resolving ongoing food crisis and achieving sustainable food security in Africa. Here, we have assessed spatio-temporal evolutions of SSR in Africa and its associated drivers based on the Granger causality method. SSR in Africa showed an overall downward trend from 1961 to 2018, mainly aggregating in Northern and Southern regions. Among 44 African countries studied, Eastern African countries had relatively higher SSRs, while Northern and Southern regions had lower SSRs. Between 1970 and 2018, Granger causality analysis revealed that about 52%, 34%, and 34% of African countries were affected by GDP, food production, and import quantity, respectively. Additionally, the influence of climatic factors (temperature and precipitation) on SSR was detected in about 27% of countries, while their direct impact on food production was found in around 45% of the regions. Implementing viable solutions such as improving food production, facilitating international trades and cooperation, and promoting sustainable economic development can largely contribute to safeguarding food security in Africa and elsewhere facing similar challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest contributor to global carbon emissions (CEs), construction industry (CI) is regarded as one of the most significant sources in China. Previous studies on carbon emission (CE) of CI, however, are often limited to the quantitative level and provincial or local administrative unit scales, lacking relevant studies at the spatial raster resolution scale, due to data limits. Here, using the energy consumption, social economic data, and a series of remote sensing data from EU EDGAR, this study explored the spatial–temporal distribution and changing characteristics of CEs from CI in typical years of 2007, 2010, and 2012. This study found, from 2007 to 2010, then 2012, in addition to subtle differences, that the direct, indirect, and total CEs of CI all showed an increasing trend overall. In all provincial units except Tianjin and Guangdong, indirect CEs took up more than 50% of the total CEs, which can clearly indicate the "dominant low carbon, recessive high carbon" characteristics of CI. The direct, indirect, and total CEs of the CI in 2007, 2010, and 2012 all showed a positive spatial clustering. Specifically, hot spots were mainly distributed in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta, and cold spots were mainly focused in the west and northeast of China, presenting a similar distribution pattern with population-economy characteristics. These findings can provide references for the policy formulation of regional differentiated emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of trade on ground-level SO2 concentrations in China was evaluated based on multiregional input–output (MRIO) analysis, using the ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) SO2 columns and SO2 profiles from an atmospheric chemical and transport model, MOZART-4. The provincial sum of ground-level SO2 concentrations has a good consistency with the provincial SO2 emissions (R = 0.65, p < 0.01). The provincial SO2 concentrations presented strong spatial variations, with a range of 5.1–50.6 μg/m3 and an average of 19.7 μg/m3 across China. The international trade increased the SO2 concentrations in all of the provinces and increased the national population-weighted SO2 (PWM-SO2) concentration by 2.9 μg/m3. Interprovincial trade within China decreased the ambient SO2 concentrations in Beijing, Tianjin, and Chongqing and the provinces in southeast and central China, but increased SO2 in the remaining provinces of China. In general, interprovincial trade decreased the national PWM-SO2 concentration by 5.3 μg/m3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land carbon emissions are primarily determined by land use type, and these emissions could be transferred during interprovincial trade activities. This study took Jiangsu in China as a case, assigned all the energy-related carbon emissions to land, and analyzed the transferred land use carbon emissions through the application of a tele-coupling framework. Finally, the physical spatial distribution of transferred land use carbon emissions within Jiangsu at high resolution was simulated. China and Jiangsu emitted 2.27 × 109 t and 1.43 × 108 t of carbon in 2012, respectively, with industrial and mining land being the biggest emission source, generating more than 70% of their total emissions. Overall, Jiangsu's net carbon emissions transferred to other provinces was 2.41 × 106 t in urban land and 9.03 × 105 t in industrial and mining land, and these carbon emissions were mainly transferred to Hebei, Shandong, and Inner Mongolia. Land utilization intensity and economic development influenced the carbon emission transfer to some extent. Other provinces also transferred a large amount of carbon emissions to Jiangsu, of which 2.57 × 106 t was in urban land and 3.18 × 107 t was in industrial and mining land. Our simulation showed that the emissions in both land use types exhibited a south-north difference within Jiangsu; more specifically, urban land carbon emissions were mainly concentrated in core urban areas, especially in Suzhou, Wuxi, and Nanjing, whereas industrial and mining land carbon emissions were mostly distributed in the periphery of core urban areas and along the Yangtze River. To balance economic development and environment protection, the government must limit the expansion of construction land (especially industrial and mining land), and developed regions should implement various types of ecological compensation measures to help less developed regions reduce carbon embodied in trade activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and human interference play significant roles on dynamic of water body abundance, and drive related hydrological, biochemical and social/economic processes. Documenting and monitoring surface water area with high resolution multi-temporal satellite imagery provide new perspective to evaluate the dynamics of surface water area, especially in continental and global scale. In this study, based on the Landsat images from 1980s to 2015, we surveyed the spatial and temporal variation of surface water area, including rivers, lakes and reservoirs, in 10-yr temporal slice across China. Furthermore, the driving forces of the variation has been identified to reveal the interaction of water bodies and the changing environment. The results show that, the water surface area expanded over all three decades with strong spatial and temporal difference, despite the drier and warmer climate background; although lakes comprise the largest portion of the surface water area, the highest contributor of surface water expansion was new constructed reservoir located in the densely populated region; climatic parameters alteration, like precipitation and temperature, resulted in the water surface expansion in the northwestern basin by growing water input linked with rain and glacier melting; in the rest part of China, rise of water surface area was predominately attributed to human relocation of water resource, which yielded more new water storage area than the disappeared water body caused by less precipitation and stronger evapotranspiration. The conclusions highlight the integrative water resource management, especially in water conservation and restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate examination of inland water body distributions, types, areas and sizes is critical for global water cycling, while water resources and the diagnosis of utilization problem are essential to sustainable water management. Therefore, there remain less well-studied in China, especially for the accurate examination of long time series. Based on high-resolution satellite imagery from the late 1970s, statistical water resource data and precipitation data, this study identifies inland rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds larger than 0.001 km2, examines the regularity of different water distributions; analyzes area, perimeter and water resource changes for ten basins from long time series, quantitatively and qualitatively analyzes determinants, and illustrates main characteristics and water use problems affecting each basin and presents a number of suggestions. The results show that inland water body areas increased from 1980 to 2015 and that reservoir and pond areas increased considerably, while lake and river areas changed little. Land surface water resources and precipitation declined slightly from 1997 to 2015. Climatic conditions determine basic water body and resource distributions and volumes at the macroscopic scale, and human activities have greatly altered spatial patterns. Basin with rivers in the southwest includes highly exploitable water resources. Basin with rivers in the northwest faces considerable water shortages and fragile environmental conditions. The Yellow River, the Haihe River and the Songhua and Liaohe River Basins suffer from water shortages and pollution. The other four basins are experiencing eutrophication and frequent meteorological and geological hazards. Sustainable water management must be based on basin characteristics and major problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the matching relationship between land use types and carbon emission items, this paper estimated carbon emissions of different land use types in Nanjing City, China and analyzed the influencing factors of carbon emissions by Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) Total anthropogenic carbon emission of Nanjing increased from 1.22928 × 10 t in 2000 to 3.06939 × 10 t in 2009, in which the carbon emission of Inhabitation, mining & manufacturing land accounted for 93% of the total. 2) The average land use carbon emission intensity of Nanjing in 2009 was 46.63 t/ha, in which carbon emission intensity of Inhabitation, mining & manufacturing land was the highest (200.52 t/ha), which was much higher than that of other land use types. 3) The average carbon source intensity in Nanjing was 16 times of the average carbon sink intensity (2.83 t/ha) in 2009, indicating that Nanjing was confronted with serious carbon deficit and huge carbon cycle pressure. 4) Land use area per unit GDP was an inhibitory factor for the increase of carbon emissions, while the other factors were all contributing factors. 5) Carbon emission effect evaluation should be introduced into land use activities to formulate low-carbon land use strategies in regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We here revise the Equation (1) as: " HT ht " Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. B Correction to: Environmental Science and Pollution Research b https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19007-2 There is a clerical error in Equation (1), where we wrote " I K i SB I i i sb "as " I K i SB I j i sb ", but which would not influence the results and conclusions. [Extracted from the article]

Urban carbon footprint reflects the impact and pressure of human activities on urban environment. Based on city level, this paper estimated carbon emissions and carbon footprint of Nanjing city, analyzed urban carbon footprint intensity and carbon cycle pressure and discussed the influencing factors of carbon footprint through LMDI decomposition model. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The total carbon emissions of Nanjing increased rapidly since 2000, in which the carbon emission from the use of fossil energy was the largest. Meanwhile, carbon sinks of Nanjing presented a declining trend since 2000, which caused the decrease of carbon compensation rate and the increase of urban carbon cycle pressure. (2) The total carbon footprint of Nanjing increased rapidly since 2000, and the carbon deficit was more than ten times of total land areas of Nanjing in 2009, which means Nanjing confronted high carbon cycle pressure. (3) Generally, carbon footprint intensity of Nanjing was on decrease and the carbon footprint productivity was on increase. This indicated that energy utilization rate and carbon efficiency of Nanjing was improved since 2000, and the policy for energy conservation and emission reduction taken by Nanjing's government received better effects. (4) Economic development, population and industrial structure are promoting factors for the increase of carbon footprint of Nanjing, while the industrial carbon footprint intensity was inhibitory factor. (5) Several countermeasures should be taken to decrease urban carbon footprint and alleviate carbon cycle pressure, such as: improvement of the energy efficiency, industrial structure reconstruction, afforestation and environmental protection and land use control. Generally, transition to low-carbon economy is essential for Chinese cities to realize sustainable development in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on energy consumption data of each region in China from 1997 to 2009 and using ArcGIS9.3 and GeoDA9.5 as technical support, this paper made a preliminary study on the changing trend of spatial pattern at regional level of carbon emissions from energy consumption, spatial autocorrelation analysis of carbon emissions, spatial regression analysis between carbon emissions and their influencing factors. The analyzed results are shown as follows. (1) Carbon emissions from energy consumption increased more than 148% from 1997 to 2009 but the spatial pattern of high and low emission regions did not change greatly. (2) The global spatial autocorrelation of carbon emissions from energy consumption increased from 1997 to 2009, the spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that there exists a 'polarization' phenomenon, the centre of 'High-High' agglomeration did not change greatly but expanded currently, the centre of 'Low-Low' agglomeration also did not change greatly but narrowed currently. (3) The spatial regression analysis showed that carbon emissions from energy consumption has a close relationship with GDP and population, R-squared rate of the spatial regression between carbon emissions and GDP is higher than that between carbon emissions and population. The contribution of population to carbon emissions increased but the contribution of GDP decreased from 1997 to 2009. The carbon emissions spillover effect was aggravated from 1997 to 2009 due to both the increase of GDP and population, so GDP and population were the two main factors which had strengthened the spatial autocorrelation of carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has emerged as one of the most important environmental issues worldwide. As the world's biggest developing country, China is participating in combating climate change by promoting a low carbon economy within the context of global warming. This paper summarizes the pathways of China's low carbon economy including the aspects of energy, industry, low carbon cities, circular economy and low carbon technology, afforestation and carbon sink, the carbon emission trading market and carbon emission reduction targets. There are many achievements in the implementation of low carbon policies. For example, carbon emission intensity has been reduced drastically along with the optimizing of energy and industry structure and a nationwide carbon trading market for electricity industry has been established. However, some problems remain, such as the weakness of public participation, the ineffectiveness of unified policies for certain regions and the absence of long-term planning for low carbon cities development. Therefore, we propose some policy recommendations for the future low carbon economy development in China. Firstly, comprehensive and long-term planning should be involved in all the low carbon economy pathways. Secondly, to coordinate the relationship between central and local governments and narrow the gap between poor and rich regions, different strategies of carbon emission performance assessment should be applied for different regions. Thirdly, enterprises should cooperate with scientific research institutions to explored low carbon technologies. Finally, relevant institutions should be regulated to realize comprehensive low carbon transition through reasonable and feasible low carbon pathways in China. These policy recommendations will provide new perspectives for China's future low carbon economy development and guide practices for combating climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change not only directly influences carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems but can also cause energy-related carbon emissions. This study examined spatiotemporal land use change across Jiangsu Province, China; calculated vegetation carbon storage loss caused by land use change and energy-related carbon emissions; analysed the relationship among land use change, carbon emissions and social-economic development; and optimized land use structure to maximize carbon storage. Our study found that 13.61% of the province's land area underwent a change in type of land use between 1995 and 2010, mainly presented as built-up land expansion and cropland shrinkage, especially in southern Jiangsu. Land use change caused a 353.99 × 104 t loss of vegetation carbon storage loss. Energy-related carbon emissions increased 2.5 times from 1995 to 2013; the energy consumption structure has been improved to some extent while still relying on coal. The selected social-economic driving forces have strong relationships with carbon emissions and land use changes, while there are also other determinants driving land use change, such as land use policy. The optimized land use structure will slow the rate of decline in vegetation carbon storage compared with the period between 1995 and 2010 and will also reduce energy-related carbon emissions by 12%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our work is the first study to explore the national and provincial composite carbon storage variations in terrestrial ecosystems of China caused by the entire flows of land use type conversion (LUTC). Only water body was excluded. The results indicated that terrestrial ecosystems of China lost 219 Tg-C due to LUTC from 1980 to 1995, and the amount was 60 Tg-C during the period 1995-2010. Despite the decrease in the total amount, carbon losses from LUTC intensified, but most of the losses were balanced by the opposite conversions. Our analyses also revealed that LUTCs in China were becoming detrimental to carbon reduction, mainly due to the insufficient increase of forest land to meet the growing demand for carbon absorption, the accelerating disappearance of grassland and the rapid expansion of settlements. More than 50% of the carbon storage variations for a single LUTC flow concentrated in several provinces. To improve China's LUTC status from the aspect of low-carbon, Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang and coastal regions, such as Shandong, Jiangsu and Liaoning, should be dealt with first according to their conditions. This study can be helpful to planners, policy makers and scholars concerned about carbon reduction in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]