Structural patterns of city-level CO2 emissions in Northwest China

In Northwest China, quantifying city-level CO ₂ emissions is fundamental to CO ₂ alleviation but encounters difficulties in data availability and quality. Further, structuring city-level emissions could be conductive to CO ₂ reduction. This study applies a practical methodology to 16 northwestern Chinese cities to grasp their historical trajectories of CO ₂ emissions. Then, structuring CO ₂ emissions is explored in terms of industrial structure, energy mix and urban-rural disparities for 8 northwestern Chinese cities. Results show that: (1) for 16 cities (2010–2015), capital and industrial cities generated most emissions. Meanwhile, CO ₂ emissions were mostly incompatible with CO ₂ intensity, but consistent with CO ₂ per capita; (2) for 8 cities (2006–2015), energy producing sectors, heavy manufacturing sectors, and coal remained major drivers of emissions. Then, the interconnection between industrial structure and energy mix exerted temporally varying impacts on emissions from energy producing sectors and heavy manufacturing sectors. Besides, urban gas consumption and rural coal use continued affecting most of household consumption emissions and household consumption emissions per capita. Moreover, the interplay between emissions and population was changed when emissions by energy type were decomposed among urban and rural households; and (3) uncertainty results fall in the range of −39% to 6%. Finally, implications for CO ₂ reduction and future work are proposed.