Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of Drivers on Province-Level Synergy of Air Pollution Control and Carbon Mitigation in China

Abstract

Abstract. Confronting the dual challenges of air pollution control and carbon mitigation, China is seeking a "win-win" pathway to achieve the co-reduction of air pollution and CO2 emission. In this study, taking 31 provinces in China as research objects, a novel index system, characterized by total emission, emission intensity and emission per capita, was established to evaluate the coupling coordination degree between the air pollution control (AP) subsystem and carbon mitigation (CM) subsystem at the provincial scale from 2013 to 2017. Local Geary’s C Index was performed to determine where the coupling coordination was correlated to its neighbour provinces. Considering the discrepancy of the socio-economic status, industrial and energy structure among provinces, Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) was employed to measure the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the influences of the driving factors on the coupling coordination degree, aiming to reduce uncertainty in the interpretation of spatial and temporal variability. Results show that: (1) Since the implementation of "Clean Air Action" in 2013, there has been an obvious improving trend of synergistic governance of air pollution control and carbon mitigation. (2) The synergy of air pollution control and carbon mitigation did not achieve good joint governance, locally. (3) The influence of drivers presents significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity among provinces. Generally, the improvement of the coupling coordination is greatly affected by the local energy structure and economic level. This conclusion has propounded practical significance for synergistic governance of air quality improvement and low-carbon development in the context of carbon neutrality achievement.