Impact Of Urban Population On Carbon Emissions

In China,It has been a trend that the rapid economic development has made population urbanization.In the process of urbanization,people are paying more and more attention to problems like urban congestion and environmental degradation.In recent years,the voice of "fleeing the big cities" has even emerged.Scholars also pay more and more attention to the problem of the size of the urban population.How to match the urban population with the urban carrying capacity is very important.On the other hand,China has become the largest carbon emitter in the world since 2006.At present,China is in the stage of urbanization and industrialization.The huge energy consumption and total carbon emissions have put China under unprecedented pressure to reduce emissions.However,there is a clear regional difference between economic development and energy consumption in China,which makes the research on carbon emissions must be targeted at different regions.At present,the research on carbon emissions is mainly based on inter-provincial data,mainly due to the lack of statistical data on energy consumption in most cities in China.It is difficult to calculate the carbon emissions of cities by the energy consumption of each species and the corresponding carbon emission factors.Therefore,there is an urgent need for new research methods to guide carbon research.Based on the above facts and considerations,this paper takes the panel data of nine cities in Fujian Province from 1994 to 2013 as a sample to simulate the per-capita carbon emission in each city by using the quantitative relationship between DMSP/OLS global nighttime lighting data and carbon emissions,On the basis of taking full account of the differences in the built-up areas of cities,a panel model of urban per capita carbon emission decision was constructed and the effect of urban population density on carbon emissions was explored using the fixed-effect estimation method.The study found that there is a U-shaped relationship between population density and carbon emissions in urban areas of Fujian Province.Population density that is too high and too low will lead to an increase in carbon emissions per capita.Based on environment-friendliness,the article estimates that the optimal urban population density in Fujian Province is 16,300 person/km2,while the overall urban population density in Fujian Province is relatively low.In addition to Ningde and Putian,the population density in other cities is lower than the optimal level.The results of this study play a guiding role in promoting the urbanization of"ecological civilization" in Fujian Province and also provide new ideas for energy conservation,emission reduction and low-carbon development in Fujian Province.On the one hand,cities with population density exceeding the optimal level should expand the urban built-up area,on the other hand,increase population control efforts.For the population density below the optimal level should develop appropriate policies to attract population,at the same time,optimizing the spatial structure of the city,so that the population of different regions within the city uniform distribution,thereby reducing the level of per capita carbon emissions in cities.