The Polarizing Trend of Regional CO₂ Emissions in China and Its Implications

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Abstract

CO₂ emissions are unevenly distributed both globally and regionally within nation-states. Given China's entrance into the new stage of economic development, an updated study on the largest CO₂ emitter's domestic emission distribution is needed for effective and coordinated global CO₂ mitigation planning. We discovered that domestic CO₂ emissions in China are increasingly polarized for the 2007-2017 period. Specifically, the domestically exported CO₂ emissions from the less developed and more polluting northwest region to the rest of China has drastically increased from 165 Mt in 2007 to 230 Mt in 2017. We attribute the polarizing trend to the simultaneous industrial upgrading of all regions and the persistent disparity in the development and emission decoupling of China's regions. We also noted that CO₂ emissions exported from China to the rest of the world has decreased by 41% from 2007 to 2017, with other developing countries filling up the vacancy. As this trend is set to intensify, we intend to send an alarm message to policy makers to devise and initiate actions and avoid the continuation of pollution migration.

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