The Study Of Carbon Emissions Status And Low Carbon Urban Development In Lanzhou

Under the background of global warming, low-carbon economic development modelwhich based on the energy, the economy and even value’s change brings new opportunitiesand challenges to all countries around the world. As a supporting point for national economicdevelopment and science and technology innovation, the cities are the main source of carbonemissions, the construction of low-carbon cities has become a inevitable choice to solveresource shortage and climate issue in the new era, at the same time, it is the fundamental wayto realize the harmony between economy, society, environment and resources. Accordingly,the paper systematically launched a low-carbon development in the western city—Lanzhou.As the core area to promote the Gansu’s economic development, the industrializationdevelopment of Lanzhou makes the energy consumption increasing day by day, and theenergy consumption is the city’s main carbon source. Under the background of globalwarming, low-carbon city construction has become an inevitable choice to realize harmoniousand unified development between resources, environment and economy. Therefore, based onthe relevant literature data and guided by the theory of sustainable development, circulareconomy and green economy, this paper firstly summarized the studies on the low-carboneconomy and low-carbon city research progress at home and abroad, and gave a briefconclusion of the low-carbon economy and low-carbon cities’ concept and connotation. Andthen, according to the current effectiveness and problems of Lanzhou’s low-carbon citydevelopment, paper used the decoupling theory model to analyze the relationship betweenenergy consumption and economic growth in Lanzhou. Secondly, took the list of greenhousegas emissions as a reference, paper measured the carbon emissions and carbon storages of keyareas in Lanzhou from the perspective of energy consumption, industrial production, solidwaste emissions and urban garden’s green areas, and made a factor analysis of Lanzhou’scarbon emissions by using the LMDI decomposition model. Thirdly, paper established anevaluation system for low-carbon city by using systems theory, and comprehensivelyevaluated the status of low-carbon city development in Lanzhou. At last, through analyzingthe advantages and limitations of low-carbon city construction in Lanzhou, paper put forwardseveral corresponding suggestions.This paper got the following conclusions through the theoretical and emp irical analysis:Low-carbon city construction in Lanzhou had been effective, but there still were someproblems, such as the institutional mechanisms was inadequate, lack of technical support andthe public awareness of low-carbon was too weak, etc. The energy consumption in Lanzhouincreased from1155.23million tons in2001to2396million tons in2012, the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth was in a state of "relatively decoupling",which meant with the increasing of economic output and energy consumption, the energyconsumption per unit of economic was decreasing. From2001-2012, carbon emissions inLanzhou had increased from848.46million tons to1782.06million tons, per capita carbonemissions had increased from2.86to5.54, but the carbon emissions intensity had decreasedfrom2.48to1.14tons. Through factors decomposition we found that the technical levelelement and energy intensity element had inhibitory effect to Lanzhou’s carbon emissions,while the economic growth element and industry structure element played a positive role.Low-carbon city development status evaluation results showed that Lanzhou is in the high-carbon development stage, and it is about to enter the medium and high-carbon stage, lowcarbon city construction had got several achievement. Lanzhou city had a certain advantageson low-carbon city construction, such as location, scientific research, policy and industrytransformation. However, it still had many limitations from the energy structure, technologylevel, financial support and institutional constraints, which need to be solved and improved inurgent in further low-carbon city construction. According to the findings, this paper putforward several countermeasures and suggestions, such as depend on the scientific andtechnological support and financial support, adjust the industrial structure and transform theeconomic growth pattern, develop the low-carbon transport, construction and consumption,adopt legislation to guarantee the low-carbon city construction.