Environmental shadows in the age of progress: The toll of economic globalization on China's climate

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of economic globalization on China's climate using city-level data from 2005 to 2019. This study employs the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) to reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between globalization and climate impact, with carbon emissions initially increasing due to scale and composition effects. Surprisingly, the technology effect has limited effectiveness, particularly in second and third-tier cities. Another significant finding of this study is the observed positive correlation between carbon emissions in the previous and current periods. However, this trend leads to lower carbon emissions in neighbouring regions. The results of this study call for technology-focused policies and international collaborations to promote sustainable development in Chinese cities.

Keywords

• Globalization
• Climate
• Economic growth
• Post-pandemic society
• China