Impacts of urbanization-related factors on CO2 emissions: Evidence from China's three regions with varied urbanization levels

With the development of the economy, China is undergoing a phase of swift urbanization since 1980s. However, the CO2 emissions are skyrocketing as a byproduct. Although there are plenty of researches focused on China's CO2 emission, only a few are interested in regional disparity, especially in the difference caused by the variation of urbanization development phases. In this paper, we divided China's 30 provincial-level administrative units into three parts based on the urbanization level. Then a STIRPAT model innovatively modified with a view of the urbanization is applied to get a deeper understand for the impact of the urbanization-related factors on CO2 emissions in varied regions. The analysis shows that the urbanization rate of the population decreases the per capita CO2 emissions in the urbanized region but has a positive impact in other two regions and the national level. In the industry structure's part, the share of the secondary industry in the economy has a positive relationship with the CO2 emissions while the share of the tertiary industry has a negative impact on the CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the improvement of the life standard measured by the dropping Engel coefficient and the surge of the private vehicle ownership increase the CO2 emissions significantly. However, the improvement of the technology increase the CO2 emissions in all the models except the under urbanized one. Based on the results and discussions on the disparity of different parts of China, policymakers can get some scientifically rational suggestions to reduce the CO2 emissions.