Inspiration or perspiration: Diffusion of China's low-carbon city pilot policies nationwide

Low-carbon city pilot policy is critical for building a responsible government and achieving modernized urban governance in China. To further promote the full implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy, it is highly necessary to clarify the spatial-temporal diffusion process and influencing mechanism of the pilot policy. By taking 277 cities at the prefecture level and above as examples, this study introduces the perspective of dynamic process, and proposes the theoretical hypothesis of policy diffusion based on the analytical framework of "demand driving-pressure response-efficiency measurement". The results demonstrate that 1) the diffusion of lowcarbon city policy in China temporally shows an overall upward trend, but policy diffusion block, deviation, and variation are likely to occur during the process, and it spatially shows obvious adjacency effect, ripple effect, and hierarchical characteristics. 2) The logic for the "demand driving-pressure response-efficiency measurement" analytical framework has an important impact on the diffusion of low-carbon city pilot policies. Among them, the level of science and technology investment has a greater impact on the pilot policies of low-carbon cities. On average, each percentage of increase in the level of science and technology investment will increase the advantage for cities in adopting low-carbon policies by 404788.3%. 3) In the analysis of different stages and regions, each logical variable affects the adoption of low-carbon policies to varying degrees. In terms of different stages, the pressure response logical variable and efficiency consideration logical variable have the most and least significant effect on the adoption of low-carbon policies, respectively. In terms of different regions, the demand driven logic and pressure response logic variables have a greater impact on the central and western regions than on the eastern region. Here, we propose the following suggestions: for cities with different actual needs, the central and local governments should correctly grasp the time node of low-carbon city pilot according to local conditions; it is necessary to reconstruct the assessment system of low-carbon policies, and establish a policy reward and punishment mechanism of combining leniency and tightness in different regions; and pilot cities should establish practical programs with operability and implementation value.