Spatiotemporal dynamics of CO₂ emissions: a case study of the "New Yangtze River Delta" in China

Due to vast territory and disparate regional energy varieties and efficiency in China, the spatial and temporal distribution of CO₂ emissions in regions is quite different. But the formulation of previous carbon reduction policies was mainly based on national or provincial emissions data, lacking of refined scale data. This paper first collected Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) night light datasets from 1992 to 2013 and constructed a CO₂ emissions inversion estimation model. Then, the spatiotemporal dynamics were analyzed by global and local spatial autocorrelation methods. Findings are as follows: (1) Total CO₂ emissions in the Yangtze River Delta showed an overall growth trend from 396 million tons in 1992 to 1.825 billion tons in 2013, with an average annual growth rate of 17.18%. (2) The relatively slow growth accounted for the highest proportion in five growth types of CO₂ emissions and were mainly concentrated in the underdeveloped southwestern regions of the Yangtze River Delta. The rapid-growth were agglomerated in the eastern coast areas. (3) Hot spots and sub-hot spots were concentrated in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Ningbo. Cold spots and sub-cold spots included southwest part of Anhui and Zhejiang. The findings provided a decision-making basis for mitigating CO₂ emissions more reasonably.