Development path of Chinese low-carbon cities based on index evaluation

This work takes the 36 cities from China's low-carbon pilot project as the research object and uses the carbon emission per capita and GDP per capita to categorize the 36 cities into four types to reveal their low-carbon development status; these four types are leading cities, developing cities, latecomer cities, and exploring cities. On the basis of an index system that quantitatively describes low-carbon development, this research analyzes the characteristics, development trends, and low-carbon development pathways of the four types of cities. According to the present situation and objectives of national emissions and considering the differences in development stages, challenges, and opportunities for each type of the city, this research presents recommendations for the low-carbon roadmap and the medium- and long-term (by 2030) emission trend routes of different types of regions in China.