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Land use and land cover changes (LUCC) affects the atmospheric environment directly or indirectly. Therefore, understanding the atmospheric response to LUCC is of great significance to maintain and improve the ecological environment. In this study, based on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and LC products, we first compared the differences of PM2.5 between urban and surrounding areas, and then further investigated the variations of PM2.5 in different and land cover (LC) using Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen's trend analysis approach at the district-level in India during 1998–2015. The results showed that the numbers of districts where the differences of PM2.5 (DPM2.5) between urban and the surrounding areas were greater than zero were increasing during 1998–2015. There is an upward trendency of annual mean PM2.5. The annual mean PM2.5 was higher than 40 μg/m3 in 58% of India's areas where there were mainly located in the Ganges plains of northern India with cropland (L01) and urban areas (L07). The annual mean PM2.5 was less than 10 μg/m3 were mainly found in north-western India with permanent ice and snow (L10), accounting for 10% of India's area. There are significant positive trends of PM2.5 concentration in 90% of cropland (L01) and 88% of urban area (L07) and the average slope were 0.83 μg/m3 and 0.82 μg/m3 respectively, which were higher than those in the rest of LC. This research serves as the basis of reference for the equitable allocation of land resources and restructuring of land use and land cover patterns in urban areas of India that severely affected by air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mismatch between trade-embodied economic benefits and CO 2 emissions causes carbon inequality, which is seldom analyzed from the intracountry level, especially across a long-term period. This study applied an environmentally extended multiregional input-output model to trace this mismatch and measure the carbon inequality quantitatively within China during 2007-2017. The results show that during the past decade, China's national carbon inequality was continuously worsening with carbon Gini coefficients rising regardless of production- (0.21-0.30) or consumption-based (0.12-0.18) accounting. The regional carbon inequality was deteriorating, where less developed provinces with 20% of total value-added emitted 32.9% of total CO 2 emissions in 2007, while this figure rose to 42.6% in 2017. The eastern provinces (Jiangsu and Shanghai) had entered into net economic and carbon beneficiaries keeping high trade advantages, by contrast the northwest provinces (Ningxia and Xinjiang) were trapped in a lose-lose situation with trade benefits declining by 68%. The southwest provinces (Yunnan and Guangxi) shifted from being net carbon and value-added exporters to net importers, stepping into the earlier development mode of eastern provinces. This hidden and exacerbated carbon inequality calls for regional-specific measures to avoid the dilemma of economic development and CO 2 mitigation, which also gives a good reminder for the rising economies, like India.