JAUE2022-042: Cross-county Carbon Governance in Zhejiang Province, China under Rescaling and Institutional Embedding

Abstract

Driven by China's dual carbon target and considering the heterogeneity and fragmentation of county-level cities, this study explored cross-county collaborative carbon reduction through rescaling and institutional embedding. Taking Zhejiang Province, China as an example, a cross-county collaborative governance model was established by gravity model and social network analysis, aiming to establish a new carbon governance boundary and a carbon locus of authority and responsibility. The results show that: (i) The counties with higher carbon linkage have linear characteristics, while the lower counties have network structure. (ii) The direction of county cooperation is centraloriented and geo-oriented. (iii) The radiation region of low-carbon counties presents multi-polarization features, including three main growth poles and four secondary growth poles. According to the above mentioned, this study break through the existing barriers of prefecture-level administrative regionalization to reorganize the counties with high interaction intensity of carbon factors. Eventually reconstruct the regions of Zhejiang province into 12 crosscounty carbon governance alliances.