Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Agricultural Carbon Emissions: Empirical Evidence from 31 Chinese Provinces

Abstract

A crucial part of China’s overall carbon emission reduction plan is the reduction of agricultural carbon emissions. Thus, it is important to identify the factors influencing agricultural carbon emissions in each province and explore the key to effectively reducing these emissions. Based on data from 31 provinces in China from 2007 to 2020, we analyzed the spatial and temporal trends in the evolution of agricultural carbon emissions in each province and determined the spatial autocorrelation of provincial carbon emissions. We further used the geographically and temporally weighted regression model to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of the driving factors of provincial agricultural carbon emissions. The results showed that agricultural carbon emissions were spatially autocorrelated among provinces. The final results indicated that different provinces could achieve agricultural carbon emission reduction by adopting different strategies most suitable to their situations, such as by using green fertilizers, and adopting sustainability-oriented agricultural technology.