Impact of the differences in carbon footprint driving factors on carbon emission reduction of urban agglomerations given SDGs: A case study of the Guanzhong in China

Urban agglomerations (UAs) are important actors in carbon emission reduction (CER) of China, but with the acceleration of urbanization, the increasing carbon footprint (CF) seriously hinders UAs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Taking the Guanzhong urban agglomeration (GUA) as a case, the CF are measured by IPCC emission inventory method. It is analyzed that the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of CF. The logarithmic mean Divisia index model and Tapio decoupling model are used to explore the effects and difference changes of the CF driving factors and analyze the decoupling relationship between CF and economic growth. The results show that the CF of the GUA increased from 161.60 to 274.02 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007-2018, which is an increase of 71.25%. Urban expansion, industrial structure and economic growth promoted the increases, and population agglomeration promoted the decreases. The effects of the energy structure and energy intensity on the CF changes are significantly different among cities. The decoupling state of CF and economic growth is unstable. The study provides the SDGs-oriented research framework on CF driving factors for developing regions and helps improve the adaptability of CER policies in UAs.