关键词: 客运交通, 碳排放, 地理特征, 中国, 一带一路

Abstract:

This paper estimates and analyzes the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from urban passenger transport in China from 1990 to 2012 at three spatial scales: the national level, the provincial level and "the Belt and Road" level. At the national level, road transport was found to be the leading source of passenger transport CO₂ emissions, followed by air transport, whereas the CO₂ emissions from rail and water transport remained at relatively low and stable levels. At the provincial level, CO₂ emissions from passenger transport were the highest in the eastern region, followed by the central region, and the lowest in the western region. The increasing coefficients of variation (CV) over the past two decades indicate that transport CO₂ emissions tended to be more concentrated in the eastern provinces, such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang. At the "the Belt and Road" level, most major cities along "the Silk Road Economic Belt" (i.e. "the Belt") showed relatively low transport CO₂ emissions, whereas the cities along "the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road" (i.e. "the Road") had relatively high transport CO₂ emissions. Nonetheless, road transport already dominated the transport CO₂ emissions in all these cities. Following the national development strategy, more travel demand will be generated by the economic development and infrastructure construction in these cities. This can pose a great challenge to the target of low-carbon emissions in China. Apart from managing travel demand, it is necessary to encourage a modal shift from road transport towards more sustainable transport modes, i.e., rail and public transport.

Key words: passenger transport, CO₂ emissions, geographical characteristics, China, the Belt and Road