Abstract:
Industrial parks serve as important strongholds for industrial and economic development in China and globally. However, the aggregation of industrial enterprises within these parks has led to intensive pollutant and carbon emissions. Achieving decoupling development that synchronizes economic growth with the reduction of pollutants and carbon emissions is significant in establishing a modern industrial system supported by the real economy, which is also faced with multiple challenges. In light of this, the study mainly focuses on three aspects. Firstly, we analyze the complexities of parks’ variety, boundary, structure, and management; the divergence of parks’ industrial types and carbon-pollution emissions characteristics; and intertwined flows of parks’ material and energy consumption. Then, relevant research progress is reviewed both domestically and internationally, to figure out the remaining challenges from the perspectives of stock and flow characteristics in industrial parks, quantifying the decoupling development of pollutant and carbon emissions, and optimizing the green and low-carbon development path. Further, we tailor the pathway of decoupling development towards synergy between carbon and pollution reduction in industrial parks, through defining the target objectives and scope of industrial parks, analyzing the mechanism of synergizing the reduction of pollution and carbon emissions, and depicting different decoupling development statuses in industrial parks with empirical cases. Accordingly, the study proposes the identification process and action plans for multi-stakeholder pollution and carbon mitigation in industrial parks from the perspectives of management authorities, infrastructure, enterprises, third-party services, and surrounding regions, to promote the high-quality development of the real economy.