ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Policy and Governance
This article is part of the Research TopicResilient and Energy-Efficient Cities: Urban Planning for Climate Adaptation and Sustainable DevelopmentView all 3 articles
Evaluating the Impact of Low-Carbon City Policies on Urban Land Use Efficiency: Evidence from China's Green Transition
Provisionally accepted
Tianhao Zhao1
Longlong Duan2*- 1National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- 2Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
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This study examines the impact of China's Low-Carbon City Pilot (LCCP) policy on urban land use efficiency (LUE), a pivotal yet underexplored aspect of sustainable urban development within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using panel data from 281 prefecture-level cities between 2005 and 2021, the study employs a staggered Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach to estimate the policy's effect. The results of the study showed that LCCP could significantly increase LUE, with results remaining robust across various alternative estimation strategies, including Propensity Score Matching Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID), Difference-in-Differences with Multiple Time Periods (CSDID), and synthetic control (SC) methods. Mechanism analysis shows that these improvements may be driven through two channels: the advancement of green innovation and the upgrading of industrial structures. Additionally, according to the results of the heterogeneity analysis, policy's effect is more significant in regions with higher marketization levels, stronger green finance capacity, and elevated administrative ranks. By extending the analysis of land governance beyond traditional environmental indicators and identifying the specific mechanisms and contextual factors, this study not only contributes new empirical insights into the spatial dynamics of China's dual-carbon transition but also clarifies previously mixed findings by uncovering the mechanisms and contextual factors through which the LCCP enhances LUE.
Keywords: Low-carbon city pilot, Land use efficiency, green innovation, green finance, Environmental Policy
Received: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao and Duan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Longlong Duan
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