The urban carbon administration discussion is becoming dominant in the carbon emission reduction landscape. China, the world’s paramount carbon emitter, has instituted a series of policies geared towards carbon emissions reduction. The co-dependent nature of these policies becomes paramount in outlining accurate and comprehensive evaluation results. This research scrutinizes the effect of various policy mixtures on curbing urban carbon emissions, utilizing the Tapio decoupling elasticity coefficient and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) techniques. The consistencies surpass the widely accepted theoretical threshold of 0.8, and each configuration can explain 14.3% to 19.8% of the sample. The findings reveal that industrial and energy policies drive the decoupling of urban carbon emissions in three of four configurations. Management-based policies merely play an auxiliary role, while social and economic policies have yet to exhibit significant implications. The outcomes of this research offer a framework for augmenting the carbon emission reduction policy system and fostering the advancement of carbon reduction initiatives.

Renewable energy’s integral role in addressing the global climate crisis underscores the importance of crafting coordinated policies to bolster its growth. Shandong Province, as China’s largest carbon emitter, presents an intriguing case study. Leveraging policy text analysis and the coupling coordination model, this research investigates the interplay among the diverse policy instruments within Shandong Province’s renewable energy policies. The findings reveal a harmonious and varied array of policy instruments. Yet, notable disparities emerge when examining secondary policy instruments across different types of renewable energy. Consequently, this paper offers strategic recommendations to improve the coupling coordination and utilization of policy instruments across various types of renewable energy. The ultimate aim is to strengthen policy synergies, overhaul the energy structure, and make a meaningful contribution to global climate change mitigation efforts.