Horizontal Carbon Compensation in Guangdong Province Based on Coordinating Land Use Carbon Budget Under the Background of Carbon Neutrality

Abstract

[Objective] The carbon compensation mechanism is an important way to promote the achievement of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals and social environment equity. [Methods] This study established the carbon compensation model to calculate the amount of spatial transfer carbon compensation based on the calculation of the carbon budget from 2010 to 2020. [Results] (1) During the study period, the average annual incremental rate of total carbon emissions was 2.51%, with the remaining cities except Foshan, Dongguan and Qingyuan increasing to varying degrees, presenting a spatial pattern of “core-periphery” centered around Guangzhou. From 2010 to 2020, the total carbon absorption showed a slow downward trend, and the spatial pattern tended to be stable with a general characteristic of high in the northern and low in the southern. (2) The carbon compensation payment area became larger during the study period, the proportion of area increased from 55.22% to 60.49%. The payment regions were mainly distributed in Huizhou, which had higher net carbon emissions, and Yunfu and Yangjiang, which had lower net carbon emissions but lower carbon emission efficiency. The compensated areas were mainly divided into two types, one type exhibited low net carbon emissions, e.g., Heyuan and Shanwei, and the other type was of high carbon emissions but high carbon emission efficiency, such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Dongguan. (3) Huizhou ranked the first of the compensation amounts to be paid, while Shenzhen received the largest amount of carbon compensation. The proportion of cross regional carbon compensation amounts to the regional GDP of each city varied from 0.017% to 0.095%, indicating that cross regional carbon compensation was feasible. [Conclusion] In order to achieve the low-carbon collaborative development of Guangdong province, it is needed to establish carbon compensation system guided by the government in the future and implement the low-carbon-oriented regional differentiation low-carbon optimization strategy. The above has important practical significance for regional coordination and low-carbon development.

Keywords

• land use
• carbon budget
• carbon compensation
• quota accounting
• guangdong province