Coordinated Development Of "Carbon Emissions,Economic Development,and Environmental Protection" Of The Yellow River Basin

The Yellow River Basin has always been one of the important economic pillars of China.However,the development of the Yellow River basin also faces regional contradictions.With the introduction of China’s "dual carbon" development goal,carbon emissions have become an important factor restricting the sustainable development of regional economy.Against this background,the central government has proposed the strategic goal of ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin,which indicates that while promoting economic development,attention must also be paid to carbon emissions and the quality of the ecological environment in the basin.However,economic development cannot be separated from energy consumption,and an increase in energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions can lead to a series of ecological environmental problems that hinder the development of the environment.Therefore,this article takes carbon emissions as the starting point to explore how to promote the development of the basin’s economy,protect the ecological environment,and promote the coordinated and orderly development of the three.This is not only an effective strategy for promoting the sustainable development of the Yellow River basin,but also lays a solid foundation for achieving the strategic goals of ecological protection and high-quality development in the basin.Based on this,this article constructs a "carbon emissions,economic development,and environmental protection" ternary coupling system based on energy,economic,and environmental indicators in the nine provinces and regions of the Yellow River basin from 2005 to 2020 for 16 years.Firstly,because efficiency is an important index of system state,the carbon emission efficiency of the nine provinces and regions is calculated through a three-stage data envelopment analysis model,and it is input as an indicator into the ternary coupling system.Then,the coupling coordination degree model and obstacle degree function are introduced to analyze the level of coordinated development among the three systems and the interaction laws between the systems,and to quantitatively identify the main constraints on the coordinated development of the "carbon emissions,economic development,and environmental protection" system.The specific research results are as follows:(1)The nine provinces and regions have relatively high technical efficiency in carbon emissions,but they all suffer from scale inefficiency.The regions with high comprehensive efficiency in carbon emissions are mainly concentrated in economically developed provinces,while low-efficiency provinces are concentrated in central and western inland areas.(2)The coupling degree and coordination degree between the "carbon emissions,economic development,and environmental protection" subsystems in the nine provinces and regions of the Yellow River Basin have steadily increased,and by 2020,the coupling degree of each subsystem has reached a high-level coupling stage[0.879,1].The coupling coordination between the subsystems has also gradually improved,although the development status of some provinces has declined in recent years,the overall basin is still moving towards a state of high-quality coordination.(3)The coupling degree of the "carbon emissions,economic development,and environmental protection" system in the nine provinces and regions of the Yellow River Basin has steadily increased,with the upper and middle reaches being significantly higher than the lower reaches.The overall coupling coordination index of the "carbon emissions,economic development,and environmental protection" system has improved,from a state of near-disruption(0.475)to a state of initial coordination(0.715).Spatially,it can be divided into three levels: Henan and Shandong provinces in the lower reaches and Sichuan province in the upper reaches have the highest coupling coordination,followed by Inner Mongolia,Shaanxi,Shanxi,Qinghai,and Gansu provinces in the middle reaches and Ningxia province in the upper reaches with lower coupling coordination.(4)The criteria layer factors that constrain the coordinated development of the "carbon emissions,economic development,and environmental protection" system in the nine provinces and regions of the Yellow River basin differ,as obtained through the use of the obstacle degree function.Apart from Shandong,which has a higher degree of environmental protection system obstacles(68.6%),the obstacles to economic development are relatively high in all provinces and regions.The main factors at the indicator layer are: total import and export volume,research and development funding,economic density,per capita water resources,comprehensive efficiency,scale efficiency,forest coverage,pure technical efficiency,per capita fixed asset investment,per capita social consumer goods retail sales,per capita carbon emissions,and carbon emission density.Based on the research conclusion of this paper,Specific recommendations for promoting coordinated development of the "carbon emissions,economic development,and environmental protection" system in the basin include:(1)Strengthening energy structure adjustment and promoting energy-saving and emission reduction technologies.(2)Broadening the industrial chain and attracting investment and consumption.(3)Strengthening water resources allocation and improving basin forest coverage.