Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies

The eco-civilization system constitutes an important part of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In order to achieve harmonious coexistence between man and nature, it is required to not only uphold and improve the eco-civilization system, but also give full play to the advantages of China’s socialist system and governance system to ensure that the eco-civilization system is effectively implemented; meanwhile, it is important to apply ecological laws in a scientific manner to continuously develop and improve the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Ecological laws function as the scientific basis for the building of ecological systems and ecological governance. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) demand the guarantee of ecological system and improvement of ecological governance capacity. While adhering to and perfecting the eco-civilization system, it is also needed to continuously advance the modernization of ecological governance capacity.

Based on the micro-data from the 2013 Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) Survey, the authors use a Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) model to simulate and measure the impacts on the welfare of urban and rural households with different incomes after a carbon tax at 50RMB/ton was levied in China. The results show that the collection of carbon tax will increase households’ consumer spending to varying degrees. In urban areas, the carbon tax exerts the greatest impact on low-income households, followed by high-income households; while in rural areas, it has the most significant effects on high-income households and the least on low-income households. On the whole, carbon tax’s impact on urban households is greater than that on rural households. To a certain extent, it can help the household income inequality change for the better and narrow the urban–rural income gap. Since the carbon tax does not act on the distribution of Chinese household income in a simply regressive or progressive way, the authors believe that China should implement supporting policies such as tax subsidies or tax refund as supplements to carbon taxation in an effort to establish a mechanism for cyclic utilization of carbon tax revenue.

As an analytical framework for studying the characteristics of changes in things and their action mechanisms, the decomposition analysis of greenhouse gas emissions has been increasingly used in environmental economics research. The author introduces several decomposition methods commonly used at present and compares them. The index decomposition analysis (IDA) of carbon emissions usually uses energy identities to express carbon emissions as the product of several factor indexes, and decomposes them according to different weight-determining methods to clarify the incremental share of each index, in which way it is possible to decompose the models that contain less factors, process time series data, and conduct cross-country comparisons. It mainly includes the Laspeyres index decomposition and the Divisia index decomposition. Among them, the LMDI I method has been widely used for its advantages such as generating no residuals and easy to use. The structural decomposition analysis (SDA) can be used to conduct a more systematic analysis, decompose models with more influencing factors, and analyze the impacts of various factors on emissions, but this method has higher requirements for data collection. The biggest difference between the SDA method and the IDA methods of carbon emissions is that the former is based on an input–output system, while the latter only needs to use sectors’ aggregate data.

This study estimated 18.35 Mg C/ha in standing biomass of natural forest and 15 Mg C/ha in Hardwickia binata Roxb. plantation in a tropical dry deciduous forest located in the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. The study area of Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, resembled a degraded dry scrubland in 1988 and for over about three decades, the degraded forest recovered remarkably, and ecological processes evolved favorably with canopy cover reaching over 60% in some patches and about 50% in general at most part of the campus. The study was conducted in 18 randomly laid plots in natural forest and over one-acre (0.405-ha) plantation area of Hardwickia binata for assessing the above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass and subsequent carbon content. The lower-diameter classes accounted for the maximum above-ground biomass, basal area and tree density. The forest is predominantly occupied by Leucaena leucocephala, an exotic tree species which showed higher standing biomass carbon storage of 3.79 Mg C/ha followed by Holoptelea integrifolia (2.11 Mg C/ha), Azadirachta indica (1.29 Mg C/ha), Gardenia latifolia (1.26 Mg C/ha) and Lannea coromandelica (1.24 Mg C/ha) besides Hardwickia binata plantation (15 Mg C/ha). It is recommended to plant and promote local native tree species in the urban forests of tropical dry deciduous nature as a means to mitigate climate change effects.

Concomitantly with China’s rise as the manufacturing hub of the world as the 20th Century faded and the Western countries witnessed industrial restructuring, brownfields emerged as an urban problem in city regions, prompting research into how to achieve brownfield redevelopment. More recently, as the global economy diversified, brownfields, and demand for redevelopment have entered the scene of urban development in China, also becoming a research field. This paper reviews international peer reviewed scientific journals on brownfield redevelopment in China, with a focus on social science approaches. Utilizing a previous review of research on OECD countries, this paper indicates similarities and differences between China and Europe and North America in terms of brownfield redevelopment. The comparison shows that research on China is catching up with the international state-of-the-art literature, addressing topics related to pollution; land use and property development; land financing, property and economics; governance, state-market interactions and private–public partnerships; and decision-making systems. Especially, the focus on user rights versus property ownership appears important for international comparative research.

The philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and inclusive development, collectively referred to as the new development philosophy, is an important component of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It plays a vital role in China’s efforts to resolve problems in economic development and cultivate new advantages. Based on a keen understanding of the new development philosophy, we review the literature on the evaluation of a single indicator of the five dimensions of philosophy and that on a comprehensive evaluation of all the indicators of philosophy. The results show varied depths of research in single-indicator evaluation, and a lack of systematic study on comprehensive evaluation. We propose a multi-tier (macro–micro)-indicator evaluation system of new development philosophy, and recommend to establish a smart evaluation platform by integrating big data with traditional data, which will serve as a foundation and provide reference for the development of a scientific, well-conceived indicator evaluation system of new development philosophy that can guide the practice.