Spatiotemporal patterns of industrial carbon emissions at the city level

Research on the dynamic distribution characteristics of carbon emissions and their evolution patterns is of importance to unify carbon reduction targets. This study aimed to measure the industrial carbon emissions by energy consumption and the cement production process in Guangdong from 2005–2015, and it empirically analyzed the distribution dynamics and evolution of the inter-regional carbon emissions. It concludes that, there was significant spatial non-equilibrium in the industrial carbon emissions, the carbon intensity in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) was less than that of the peripheral cities, and the results showed that the overall gap in the spatial distribution of the industrial carbon emissions showed an expanding trend with its evolution to the east. Among them, Northern Guangdong showed a downward trend. The carbon emissions of the PRD were greatly reduced with the external strong radiation. The carbon emission reduction policies should be tailored to local conditions according to the development levels.