China's intra- and inter-national carbon emission transfers by province: A nested network perspective

Since China carries an increasingly significant responsibility in carbon emission reduction, a systematic assessment from the multi-scale and multi-regional perspective is essential to examine the region-specific carbon emissions and different kinds of carbon transfer patterns. By identifying carbon emission flows among 31 domestic provincial administrative regions and 184 foreign countries/economies, this work examines the domestic and foreign carbon emission flows of Chinese provinces/municipalities based on the intra- and inter-national relations. Overall, the provinces and municipalities in China are divided into 4 patterns according to carbon emission flows, among which inland provinces mainly engage in domestic carbon emission transfers, western regions generally receive carbon emissions with main carbon outflows in northeastern and central provinces, and coastal regions play an essential role in balancing carbon emission surpluses and deficits between domestic and foreign regions. For different sub-regions in China, recognizing carbon emission transfer relations contributes to the synergetic and sustainable regional development from a tele-connected perspective. With the nested network analysis, the multi-scale and multi-regional assessments focusing upon China's provinces and municipalities extend the existing research to both national and global scales, providing a solid foundation for sustainable regional development in China.