Assessing transport CO₂ emissions is important in the development of low-carbon strategies, but studies based on mixed land use are rare. This study assessed CO₂ emissions from passenger transport in traffic analysis zones (TAZs) at the community level, based on a combination of the mixed-use development model and the vehicle emission calculation model. Based on mixed land use and transport accessibility, the mixed-use development model was adopted to estimate travel demand, including travel modes and distances. As a leading low-carbon city project of international cooperation in China, Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City Core Area was chosen as a case study. The results clearly illustrate travel demand and CO₂ emissions of different travel modes between communities and show that car trips account for the vast majority of emissions in all types of travel modes in each community. Spatial emission differences are prominently associated with inadequately mixed land use layouts and unbalanced transport accessibility. The findings demonstrate the significance of the mixed land use and associated job-housing balance in reducing passenger CO₂ emissions from passenger transport, especially in per capita emissions. Policy implications are given based on the results to facilitate sophisticated transport emission control at a finer spatial scale. This new framework can be used for assessing the impacts of urban planning on transport emissions to promote sustainable urbanization in developing countries.

As a critical element for energy transition and carbon neutrality, climate finance is receiving increasing attention from policymakers. However, existing studies mainly focus on the environmental economic performance of individual climate finance policy instruments, with limited discussion on the policy mix rationale. To uncover the evolutionary dynamics of public climate finance policy mix and understand its underlying mechanisms in facilitating low-carbon transition, this paper systematically examined the policy documents released from 2006 to 2023 in China. The results indicate that since the enactment of the Renewable Energy Law , China has introduced 121 public finance policy documents to support renewable energy development, marking a gradual shift from government-led subsidy policies to a market-based green electricity trading scheme. The policy mix dynamics vary across different phases: Phase I (2006-2010) witnessed a predominant utilization of special funds, Phase II (2011-2016) focused on the establishment and implementation of feed-in tariffs, while Phase III (2017-2023) marked a transition toward market-based policy instruments. Overall, China's experience shows that a comprehensive array of policy instruments, rather than relying on a single tool, is necessary for facilitating a low-carbon transition. Instead of prescribing an optimal combination of policy instruments once and for all, it is crucial to dynamically adjust and calibrate these instruments over the long term. This study not only assists China in exploring an appropriate policy mix for energy transition and carbon emission reduction, but also provides valuable references for other countries with similar development modes.

Climate change has become a global concern, and the development of a green economy has attracted wide attention. Understanding the driving factors and growth potential of provincial-level carbon productivity is crucial for China’s green economic development in the new normal phase. In this study, the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) is adopted to systematically investigate the driving factors of provincial carbon productivity and explore the growth potential of provinces’ carbon productivity based on the clustering analysis. The results show that: (1) China’s provincial carbon productivity presents an increasing trend in 2001–2017, but the differences in carbon productivity among provinces are widening. (2) Economic activity and industrial structure are key to push up regional carbon productivity in China, while energy intensity is the main factor pulling it down. (3) The potential for carbon productivity improvement varies greatly among provinces in the four groups. Specifically, in groups 1 and 2, the developed provinces have little potential for improving carbon productivity, while the developing provinces in group 4 are just the opposite. These findings can enlighten policymakers that the development of a green economy should focus on optimizing and upgrading industrial structure and reducing energy intensity, and provincial heterogeneity must be considered when formulating green economic development policies.