Abstract:
There is a huge mismatch between carbon and pollution emissions and environmental carrying capacity in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Although cross-regional cooperative environmental governance can alleviate the pressure of excessive carbon-pollutant emissions on the emission side, due to the insufficient emission reduction potential, ‘natural adaptation’ approach needs to be introduced to improve the efficiency of environmental management. Based on the measurement of carbon and pollution emissions, the Copula model can be used to identify the synergy risk of carbon and pollution emissions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Meanwhile, the dynamic matching relationship between carbon-pollutant emission scale and ecological belt absorption capacity can be analyzed, based on combining the types of regional ecological zones and their purifying characteristics. Based on the co-construction level of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the scale of the ecological belt in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is gradually increased. A total of 10 scenarios in 4 categories (including namely, baseline, conservative, compromise, and aggressive) were simulated to analyze the interactive game relationship between green ecological zones and net carbon emissions under different levels of co-production. The results show: (1) From 2011 to 2019, the carbon emissions fluctuated up and reached the maximum value of 1323.164 Mt in 2018, and the pollution emission fluctuated down and reached the maximum value of 402.9×10
4 t in 2015. Although the risk of pollution emission in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has reduced, the risk of carbon emissions have not decreased accordingly. (2) Carbon emissions of 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region are greater than the carbon absorption of the ecological zone. Among them, Baoding, Zhangjiakou and Chengde are in line with the direction of carbon reduction and emission reduction. Tangshan, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Handan and Beijing are in the opposite direction of carbon reduction and emission reduction. Qinhuangdao, Cangzhou, Langfang, Hengshui and Xingtai belong to the ‘low emissions and low absorption type’. (3) In the scenario simulation, the minimum comprehensive risk value of carbon pollutant emission under the aggressive scenario is 0.055, while the maximum comprehensive risk value of carbon-pollutant emission under the S0 scenario is 0.648. The study finds that the co-construction of green ecological belts can effectively improve the effectiveness of carbon-pollutant reduction, so as to reduce the net emissions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, where the higher co-construction level, the more in line with the goal of development of carbon-pollutant reduction. Scenario simulations show that the matching relationship between carbon-pollutant emissions and ecological belt absorption capacity in the 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is unstable, which presents a dynamic trend based on socioeconomic development. Although the co-construction of ecological belt can alleviate excessive emissions of carbon pollutants to a certain extent, improvement of collaborative governance is an important way to reduce excess emissions.