City-Level Carbon Emission Abatement in the Subtropics of China: Evaluation and Reallocation for Zhejiang

Abstract

Zhejiang province, one of the classic subtropical regions in China, has promoted the establishment of a carbon trading market in recent years. The appropriate allocation of carbon emission abatement (CEA) quotas is the precondition for constructing a carbon trading market. This article mainly allocates municipal CEA quotas in Zhejiang province during the 12th Five-Year period based on data envelopment analysis approach. The main results reveal that Zhejiang exhibits relatively high environmental efficiency; carbon emission reduction in moderate level would bring gross domestic product growth for certain cities; the actual CEA quotas allocation of Zhejiang during 12th Five-Year period could be further optimized under the precondition of the national requirement of carbon intensity. Possible policy suggestions are provided in terms of the results.