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Growth target management drives China's economic expansion, leading to potential carbon emission externalities. This study examines the impact of economic growth target setting on carbon emission performance in 257 Chinese localities from 2004 to 2020. Using cluster standard error regression, 2SLS instrumental variable regression, and the spatial Durbin model, the results show that moderate growth targets improve urban carbon emission performance. Conversely, aggressive targets do not enhance regional carbon emission performance. Moderate growth targets foster innovation in green technology, while aggressive ones encourage investment in fixed assets and new city growth, impeding performance. Cities in the eastern and western regions, with larger populations and less reliance on natural resources, benefit more from effective economic development targets. The establishment of local targets negatively affects neighboring regions' carbon emissions performance, particularly at a spatial scale of 100 to 200 km. This paper contributes to understanding the environmental consequences of growth target setting and offers insights for balancing economic growth with carbon emission governance in emerging market countries., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Climate change has profoundly affected human production and development, and also brought new challenges to China's goal of achieving inclusive economic growth. Using the data of 273 cities in China from 2001 to 2019, this research evaluates the impact of climate change on urban inclusive economic growth by constructing a temperature bin variable according to the daily average temperature. It is found that with the temperature bin [18 °C, 21 °C) as the benchmark group, both temperature rise and fall have a negative influence on inclusive economic growth. Notably, the adverse effects of high temperatures (above 27 °C) are statistically and economically significant, exhibiting a trend of increasing magnitude. The mechanism test shows that high temperature affects the inclusive growth level of the urban economy mainly by exacerbating the urban‒rural income gap. The heterogeneity analysis found that cities located in hot regions, southern regions or coastal areas are more sensitive to high temperatures and experience more prominent effects. This research holds significant practical implications for China to achieve a win‒win situation of balanced economic development and climate governance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The digital economy (DE) has become a major breakthrough in promoting industrial upgrading and an important engine for high-quality economic growth. However, most studies have neglected the important driving effect of regional economic and social (RES) development on DE. In this paper, we discuss the mechanism of RES development promoting the development of DE, and establish a demand-driven regional DE development model to express the general idea. With the help of spatial analysis toolbox in ArcGIS software, the spatial development characteristics of DE in the Yangtze River Delta City Cluster (YRDCC) is explored. We find the imbalance of spatial development is very significant in YRDCC, no matter at the provincial level or city level. Quantitative analysis reveals that less than 1% likelihood that the imbalanced or clustered pattern of DE development in YRDCC could be the result of random chance. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) analysis with publicly available dataset of YRDCC indicates RES development significantly promotes the development of DE., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Zhong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Achieving high-quality development of the city requires actively promoting coordinated digitalization and low-carbon development. Previous studies have focused on the unidirectional impact of urban digitalization on low-carbonization and there is a lack of research on their interactions. This study uses the generalized spatial three-stage least squares method and the spatial simultaneous equation to investigate the endogenous interactions between urban digitalization and low-carbonization. The properties of the spatiotemporal evolution are then examined using linked coordination degree models, kernel density, and spatial statistical approaches. Finally, using the spatial panel metering model, this study empirically investigates the motivations behind the synergistic advancement of digitalization and low-carbonization. The results show that: (1) There is an endogenous interaction between urban digitalization and low-carbonization and that this interaction pattern is closely linked to geographical proximity. (2) In general, both urban digitalization and low-carbonization have a positive spatial impact and a negative spatial interaction, and their coordination levels have a significant spatial impact. (3) Throughout the research period, the coordination degree of urban digitalization and low carbonization continued to increase, showing a positive spatial correlation and a balanced development trend. (4) Economic development, industrial structure, and human capital accumulation are vital internal drivers of the synergistic advancement of urban digitalization and low carbonization. Government capacities and technological innovations are key external factors that contribute to the synergistic advancement of urban digitalization and low-carbonization. Overall, the paper is essential not only to deepen understanding of the relationship between urban digitalization and low-carbonization but also to formulate policies for their coordinated development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Siliang Guo. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Promoting green technology innovation (GTI) through environmental regulation is a key measure in reducing the severity of environmental problems. However, the effects of formal environmental regulation (FER) and informal environmental regulation (IER) on GTI have not been clarified. Through theoretical analysis, this paper analyzes the effects of FER and IER on GTI based on OLS and GTWR models. The results show the following: (1) In all Chinese cities, both FER and IER have had a positive impact on GTI. The impact of FER has been much stronger than that of IER. They show a linkage effect, and their interaction (TER) has had a positive impact on GTI. (2) In terms of spatial heterogeneity, the impact of FER, IER, and TER on GTI has decreased across the east-west gradient and has been supplemented by a core-periphery structure. (3) In terms of urban heterogeneity, the impact of FER, IER, and TER has decreased with the size of the city. This study has the potential to strengthen the effect of environmental regulation on GTI. It can provide a decision-making reference for cities to coordinate FER and IER strategies, and provides evidence for adopting regionally differentiated environmental regulation strategies.

This paper explores what needs to be done to better address the growing and substantial inequalities in the UK and how the 'Levelling Up' policy that seeks to address them could be improved. It argues that a much longer-term vision and a sharper, cross-government focus on fewer challenges is required to make a more tangible impact. Four key findings are identified: a focus on health and education is fundamental for our social and economic prosperity; there is a need for greater devolution of power, with transparent and robust accountability; an open, nationwide knowledge base to share what works and what does not, and the lessons learned from innovative pilots, is required; and a more holistic approach is needed to support businesses and provide them with better-quality support. This paper argues that without these issues being taken into consideration, the lives and well-being of our disadvantaged citizens, our children and our economy will continue to worsen. It concludes that making economic development a statutory function, putting it at the very heart of our public services, is needed to ensure that the levelling up outcome is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK government's 'Industrial Strategy' is a product of a Conservative party in power, coming to terms with a particular set of economic and political circumstances. In contrast, international bodies have commended long-term concepts of 'green growth' rather than conventional industrial development, whilst individual local authorities in the UK and elsewhere have been working towards economic regeneration policies that are both environmentally aware and also related directly to local communities. Taken together, the UK industrial strategy, the reports of international agencies and the efforts of individual local authorities raise the question as to the possible shape of a national strategy that reflects ideas of green growth and applies these ideas to processes of urban regeneration, urban development and planning. This paper gives a brief outline of such a strategy, suggesting that green growth must deal with towns and cities, both as causes of pollution, carbon emissions and resource consumption and as places where people should be able to enjoy a good quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall entropy method is used to evaluate the development level of the logistics industry in the city based on a mechanism analysis of the spillover effect of the development of the logistics industry on economic growth, according to the panel data of 26 cities in the Yangtze River delta. On this basis, the paper uses the spatial durbin model to study the direct impact of the development of the logistics industry on economic growth and the spatial spillover effect. The results show that the direct impact coefficient of the development of the logistics industry in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration on local economic growth is 0.092, and the significant spatial spillover effect on the economic growth in the surrounding area is 0.197. Compared with the labor force input, capital investment and the degree of opening to the world, and government functions, the logistics industry's direct impact coefficient is the largest, other than capital investment; the coefficient of the spillover effect is higher than other control variables, making it a "strong engine" of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration economic growth., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The cities are the consumption concentration of energy, resources, and the concentration of CO 2 emissions. The cities' area only accounted for 2% in the world's surface; however, their population accounted for about 50% of the total population, and CO 2 emissions accounted for about 80% of the total emissions. The cities lie in a key position in solving the global climate change. China's urbanization level was just exceeding by 50%, which was in the intermediate stage of urbanization. The rapid development of the urbanization process and the expansion of city scale have brought economic growth and all kinds of environmental issues. Therefore, is there an optimal city scale which can make cities maintain economic growth and can also reduce or even avoid the environmental problems in the meantime? The question deserves deep research. Based on the background, the data from 1998 to 2014, and the goals of the cities' economic and environmental benefits, this paper builds the optimal scale model for the cities, and obtain two conclusions: (1) in a certain period and range, the cities have the optimal scale; (2) for the cities in China, the optimal scale is about 1.78 million people.

t An index system is constructed to measure the integration of environmental protection and high-quality economic development in different cities in China from 2006 to 2018, and to explore its evolution and driving forces. From the three dimensions of integration foundation, integration depth and integration performance, this paper adopts AHP-Entropy combined weighting method to build the integration index. In addition, this paper comprehensively uses exponential decomposition, comparative analysis and σ convergence and divergence analysis to explore the spatio-temporal differences and dynamic mechanisms. The results show that the overall integration level of China’s cities continues to improve, of which technological progress is the core driving force, the transformation of development mode is a crucial path, and the intensity of environmental governance is the key support. The evolution and driving forces of the integration level of first-tier cities, new first-tier cities and other cities are significantly different. Promoting integration level is a critical way for resourcebased cities to break the resource curse. Urban agglomeration integration led by the growth pole can effectively improve the overall regional integration level. This paper innovates that the relationship between environmental protection and high-quality economic development is discussed from the perspective of integration, and the paths to improve the integration level of resource-based cities and urban agglomerations are identified. This paper is helpful to clarify the differences in integration levels and driving forces of different cities, and provide a reference value for the precise implementation of high-quality development and “beautiful China.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the greenhouse gas (GHG) protocol for cities, GHGs are responsible for an estimated 75 per cent of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. This represents a key opportunity to tackle climate change. With the year 2023 and, in particular, the month of July delivering record-breaking temperatures, this demonstrates a clear need to accelerate decarbonisation and, in this context, to reduce the carbon footprint of cities. Further, acting on urban development addresses a number of key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). Many cities, however, are struggling to break away from a reliance on carbon and some are economically dependent on it. This paper seeks to investigate, through an energy justice lens, some first considerations of how to secure just and sustainable urban regeneration. It posits that energy justice, and its five core principles, is a useful analytical tool for considering the justice and development concerns related to the transition to a low-carbon world. The cities examined in brief in this comparative study are Bordeaux in France, Venice in Italy, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and Bangkok in Thailand. The research posits that despite different trajectories, cities can play a leading role in ensuring justice and sustainability in our low-carbon world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current economic development trajectory is fundamentally unsustainable. However, decoupling economic growth from excessive natural resource consumption can be adopted as a means to deviate from this current trajectory. Decoupling enables economic growth and human development through non-material growth, without the environmental and social casualties of the incumbent model. Cities are the current and future context for socio development as well as a significant part of the cause and solution to sustainability challenges. Cities account for the majority of production and consumption activities leading to environmental degradation, and they are also the primary location for economic, institutional, and human capital. Innovative responses to global challenges generally emerge during the interaction between these kinds of capital. This paper presents the case of three of Cape Town's resource flows namely; electricity, water and solid waste, as mediated by networked urban infrastructure, to demonstrate the possibility of urban scale decoupling. Conclusions indicate that while decoupling can occur at the city scale, it is unlikely to be sufficient for the realization of sustainable urban development. Purposive interventions are therefore critical for successful, sustainable urban transitions., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Megacity growth in the developing world is fueled by a desire to access their large local labor markets. Growing megacities suffer from high levels of traffic congestion and pollution, which degrade local quality of life. Transportation technology that allows individuals to access the megacity without living within its boundaries offers potentially large social benefits, because individuals can enjoy the benefits of urban agglomeration while not paying megacity real estate rents and suffering from the city's social costs. This paper presents evidence supporting the claim that China's bullet trains are playing this role. The bullet train is regarded as one of the most significant technological breakthroughs in passenger transportation developed in the second half of the 20th century. Starting in 2007, China has introduced several new bullet trains that connect megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou with nearby cities. Through facilitating market integration, bullet trains will stimulate the development of second- and third-tier cities. By offering households and firms a larger menu of location alternatives, bullet trains help to protect the quality of life of the growing urban population. We document that this transport innovation is associated with rising real estate prices in the nearby secondary cities.

Urban public lighting is an important ingredient for the social and economic development of cities and the safety and security of their citizens. Existing studies support the need for artificial light in cities to enable around the clock activities and enterprise. Although artificial light is a public service commodity, procuring and maintaining lighting in cities is challenging due to funding shortfalls and a lack of technical expertise. The objective of this paper is to identify ways through which public private partnerships can be used to procure and maintain cost-effective and energy-efficient urban streetlighting and introduces a novel approach to generate a sustainable revenue stream to fund the enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Levelling up and the everyday economy are two crucial concepts for understanding the direction of policy making in the UK, but the relationship between them has not yet been fully explored. Moreover, the UK's industrial and regional policies are woefully underdeveloped. This article suggests how levelling up and the everyday economy concepts could contribute to Labour's emerging industrial and regional policies. It argues that Labour is right to pursue an economic growth agenda, but must make growth work for communities and workers, and the everyday economy can help. The everyday economy can contribute to, and benefit from, local productivity growth, but regions still need companies that export or are at the technological frontier to raise demand, productivity and pay. Labour should work with the government's Levelling Up White Paper, but this was overly focussed on cities and knowledge intensive business services: there is an economic case for including towns and manufacturing too, and they should prioritise connecting places and sectors, building on the diverse strengths which different places can offer, and setting a long‐term direction of travel. Over time, Labour should try to ensure that cities, towns and smaller communities are better connected, better coordinated and more specialised within larger regions. Labour should, therefore, set out an industrial and regional strategy; work up an economic development toolkit; and devolve economic powers to Mayoral Combined Authorities and councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cities where manufacturing has historically thrived, considerable local attention has been given to the development of areas of land for industrial estates. These estates or industrial areas have served the needs of manufacturing businesses in enabling them to be near suppliers, customers, labour and even competitors. Yet, as much of the world has transitioned away from established forms of mass production, and as the influences of globalised value chains in production have escalated, challenges for mature industrial estates have increased whilst demand for greenfield land development opportunities has grown. With the transformation of industrial estates rarely noted in various local urban policy formulations, and only occasionally considered in national policy, questions arise of how to best attend to the varied needs of mature industrial areas, including those experiencing decline and urban decay. In South Africa, despite a strong industrialisation focus, these issues have hardly featured in debates on the development and character of cities and towns, other than as one of the features of apartheid urban geography. In an effort to cast more light on these processes, the paper seeks to establish what manufacturing firms report as advantages and disadvantages of the places in which they operate and how these might vary between more centrally located, older industrial areas and more peripherally located, generally newer estates. Furthermore, the paper seeks to better understand the relationship between these locational reflections and firm performance with regard to investment and employment. The research informing the paper has drawn primarily on a research survey into medium and large manufacturing employers in eThekwini Municipality (Durban, South Africa), supplemented by additional research on industrial areas in the metropolitan area. The paper finds that levels of dissatisfaction with the business environments more generally, and locational factors in particular, in both established and newer industrial areas or estates, are given some emphasis by firms in explaining the curtailing of past, present and intended investment and employment choices in those same locations. The research further notes the absence of coherent local and national frameworks for responding to deindustrialisation pressures linked to operational and investment environment experienced by firms and discusses some of the related implications for both local and national policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on creative cities and cultural spaces, as offering new perspectives for tourism. Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies some key concerns that cities currently face and introduces the articles in the special issue, remarking on the novel ideas and concepts provided in these papers. Findings – Creative tactics may provide an alternative to cultural regeneration strategies, and increase the capability of cities to distinguish themselves from other competing places. Originality/value – The paper identifies key concepts that are further discussed in the articles included in this special issue on "creative cities and cultural spaces: new perspectives for tourism". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly urbanized populations and climate change have shifted the focus of decision makers from economic growth to the sustainability and resilience of urban infrastructure and communities, especially when communities face multiple hazards and need to recover from recurring disasters. Understanding human behavior and its interactions with built environments in disasters requires disciplinary crossover to explain its complexity, therefore we apply the lens of complex adaptive systems (CAS) to review disaster studies across disciplines. Disasters can be understood to consist of three interacting systems: (1) the physical system, consisting of geological, ecological, and human-built systems; (2) the social system, consisting of informal and formal human collective behavior; and (3) the individual actor system. Exploration of human behavior in these systems shows that CAS properties of heterogeneity, interacting subsystems, emergence, adaptation, and learning are integral, not just to cities, but to disaster studies and connecting them in the CAS framework provides us with a new lens to study disasters across disciplines. This paper explores the theories and models used in disaster studies, provides a framework to study and explain disasters, and discusses how complex adaptive systems can support theory building in disaster science for promoting more sustainable and resilient cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across OECD countries productivity growth has slowed, not just in recent years but over the past four decades: the so-called productivity puzzle. This paper examines the differing productivity growth paths of some 85 British cities since the beginning of the 1970s, and explores how far these paths reflect differences across cities in the pace and nature of structural change. We find that while northern cities led productivity growth over 1971-91 southern cities then led after 1991. However, at the same time, the rate of productivity growth slowed across almost all cities between these two periods. We find evidence of considerable structural convergence across cities and a general tendency for the degree of specialisation to fall. This then leads to a decomposition analysis which identifies the relative contribution of between-sector (structural change) and within-sector effects to city productivity growth. The analysis reveals that structural change -- and especially the shift from manufacturing to services -- has had a negative impact on productivity growth across all cities, but that within-sector productivity developments while positive and outweighing structural change effects, have also declined over the past 45 years, as well as varying across cities. These findings point to the need for further research on the causes of this slowdown in 'within-sector 'productivity growth and why those causes appear to differ from city to city. They also point to the need for a 'place-based' dimension to policies aimed at improving national productivity performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]