Inclusive Wealth growth pathways within the carbon peak target for Chinese cities

Abstract

Abstract The Paris Agreement and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provide the foundation for sustainable development under a changing climate. China is committed to its international responsibilities through a national plan on implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as a commitment to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030. However, existing literature lacks necessary detail on the interactions between these two agendas, or how the paths to both will be blazed. This study aims to provide the latest sustainability assessments of Chinese cities and to analyze their diverse emission patterns and progress in reducing emissions. To measure the sustainable performances of 67 Chinese cities, this study adopted a basic tool: an Inclusive Wealth Index framework that looks at the productive base of an economy, including produced capital, human capital and natural capital. These findings were then integrated with carbon emissions using the Index Decomposition Analysis approach. The empirical results indicate that several national demonstration zones achieved sustainable peaking in correspondence to declining emissions and growing well-being from 2012 to 2019, developments driven by structure transformation of industry and improvement of education. Some northeastern cities meet the emission mitigation target by dramatically reducing production in carbon-intensive industries; this has led to declining emissions along with carbon peak, however, resulting in declining well-being. This study serves as a foundation for different types of cities as well as other countries to develop pathways suited to both sustainable development goals and peak carbon targets in the future.