Can land urbanization help to achieve CO2 intensity reduction target or hinder it? Evidence from China

Since China's new government took office in 2013, China proposed the developing concept of New-type Urbanization (NU). In addition, China is trying its best to achieve the targets of carbon emission intensity (CEI) reduction committed in Copenhagen and Paris Accords. It is an important issue of how to collaborate Urbanization development and CEI reduction targets. This study employs the indicator of land urbanization (LU) to investigate the relationship between CEI and Urbanization. The main results are as follows: (1) all models specify that there is an inverse U-shaped curve relationship between CEI and LU; (2) according to Instrumental Variable-Fixed Effects Model (IV-FE), all provinces are within the rising phrase of LU-CEI Environmental Kuznets Curve; (3) panel Granger causality tests reveal that there are bidirectional causalities between CEI and LU, CEI and population urbanization (PU), LU and PU. Our results not only help advance the existing literature, but also could be of special interest to urban planners and policy makers.