Rapporteur: Assistant Professor Zheng Heran, School of Sustainable Construction, Bartlett Department of Architecture, University College London

Time: 20pm Beijing time on May 8th

Tencent Conference Number: 683 760 937

Introduction to report content:

Chinese cities are at the core of national carbon reduction and global decarbonization initiatives, but the gap between cities has become a major challenge in achieving this goal. Low carbon transformation should prioritize achieving fairness between cities and convergence of emission reduction goals. The interconnected supply chain of production and consumption between cities is a factor shaping inequality and promoting emission reduction development, but aggregation considerations are relatively few. Here, we simulated the supply chain of 309 Chinese cities in 2012 to quantify the Carbon footprint inequality and explore the impact opportunities of achieving inclusive low-carbon transformation. We have revealed an important regional inequality in carbon emissions: the per capita Carbon footprint of China's 10 richest cities is equivalent to that of the United States, while half of China's cities are lower than the global average. In China, the inter city supply chain involving 80% carbon emissions means a major risk of Carbon leakage and contributes to social and economic inequality. However, significant regional inequality in carbon emissions means there is a huge opportunity, with 32 super emitting cities being able to achieve significant emissions reductions. If super emitting cities implement differentiated emission reduction paths such as wealth, industrial structure, and supply chain roles, they can create a maximum carbon quota of 140 million tons and increase the expected carbon quota by 30% to the carbon peak. The additional carbon quota can enable the other 60% of Chinese people to achieve a middle-income or above living standard, highlighting the collaborative mechanism at the city level, and helping to achieve overall fairness and meet emission reduction standards.

Reported by:

Zheng Heran, Doctor of International Development, Assistant Professor of School of Sustainable Construction, Bartlett Department of Architecture, University College London. The research focuses on input-output simulation analysis, sustainable production and consumption, and is committed to quantifying the impact of public policies on social environmental spillovers through the industrial chain. The relevant research results have been published in journals such as Nature Climate Change and Nature Sustainability.

(Undertaken by: Department of Technology, Economics and Strategic Management, Research and Academic Center)