This article provides a systematic review of the literature on net-zero carbon cities, their objectives and key features, current efforts, and performance. We discuss how net-zero differs from low-carbon cities, how different visions of a net-zero carbon city relate to urban greenhouse gas accounting, deep decarbonization pathways and their application to cities and urban infrastructure systems, net-zero carbon cities in theory versus practice, lessons learned from net-zero carbon city plans and implementation, and opportunities and challenges in transitioning toward net-zero carbon citie across both sectors and various spatial fabrics within cities. We conclude that it is possible fors cities to get to or near net-zero carbon, but this requires systemic transformation. Crucially, a city cannot achieve net-zero by focusing only on reducing emissions within its administrative boundaries, particularly in how it can enable sequestering of carbon from the atmosphere. Because of carbon lock-in, and the complex interplay between urban infrastructure and behavior, strategic sequencing of mitigation action is essential for cities to achieve net-zero. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
This paper examines the emerging multiple centre urban spatial structure in Beijing using housing price variation as an indicator. A random sample of 3783 apartment units was used. These apartments were recent sales in 2001, 2003 and 2005. The dataset included transaction prices and main housing attributes gathered from the Beijing Construction Committee. A hedonic price model was calibrated to investigate the importance of the different urban centres to housing price variations. The results show that multiple urban centres (such as Tian’anmen, CBD, Zhongguancun and the Olympic Centre) explain more of the variations in housing price differences in the metropolitan space than any centre does alone. The findings also reveal changes in impacts from the individual centres in the study period. These outcomes confirm that Beijing is moving towards a polycentric urban form. The emerging multiple urban centres are key factors in understanding the spatial restructuring of Beijing, especially in modelling its emerging housing market.
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