Urban CO2 Emissions : A Global Analysis with New Satellite Data
This paper estimates an urban carbon dioxide emissions model using satellite-measured carbon dioxide concentrations from 2014 to 2020, for 1,236 cities in 138 countries. The model incorporates the global trend in carbon dioxide concentration, seaso...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/521581636558249596/Urban-CO2-Emissions-A-Global-Analysis-with-New-Satellite-Data http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36557 |
| Summary: | This paper estimates an urban carbon
dioxide emissions model using satellite-measured carbon
dioxide concentrations from 2014 to 2020, for 1,236 cities
in 138 countries. The model incorporates the global trend in
carbon dioxide concentration, seasonal fluctuations by
hemisphere, and a large set of georeferenced variables that
incorporate carbon dioxide–intensive industry structure,
emissions from agricultural and forest fires in neighboring
areas, demography, the component of income that is
uncorrelated with industry structure, and relevant
geographic conditions. The income results provide the first
test of an Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship for
carbon dioxide based on actual observations. They suggest an
environmental Kuznets curve that reaches a peak near or
above $40,000 per capita, which is at the 90th percentile
internationally. The research also finds that economic
development has a significant effect on the direction of the
relationship between population density and carbon dioxide
emissions. The relationship is positive at very low incomes
but becomes negative at higher incomes. The paper also uses
cities’ mean regression residuals to index their carbon
dioxide emissions performance within and across regions,
decomposes model carbon dioxide predictions into broad
source categories for each city, and uses the regression
residuals to explore the impact of subway systems. The
findings show significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions
for subway cities. |
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