ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Systems Engineering
Carbon Emission Efficiency System of Wastewater Treatment in China's Yangtze River Economic Belt: Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Influencing Factors
Provisionally accepted
- 1Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- 2Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
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Improving the carbon emission efficiency of wastewater treatment is essential for achieving the coordinated goals of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. As a key economic and ecological region in China, the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) provides an important context for examining the low-carbon performance of regional wastewater treatment systems. However, existing studies mainly focus on plant-level efficiency or single environmental indicators, with limited attention to regional-scale carbon emission efficiency and its spatiotemporal evolution. Based on the IPCC carbon accounting framework and an entropy weight – TOPSIS method, this study evaluates the carbon emission efficiency of wastewater treatment (CEEWT) across provinces in the YEB from 2011 to 2020. The spatiotemporal evolution and regional disparities of CEEWT are systematically analyzed, and the underlying mechanisms are discussed from economic, technological, and institutional perspectives. The results indicate that CEEWT in the YEB shows an overall upward but fluctuating trend, while significant and persistent regional disparities remain. Downstream provinces such as Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang consistently exhibit higher efficiency levels, whereas many midstream and upstream provinces lag behind. No clear convergence pattern is observed, suggesting strong path dependence shaped by long-term structural conditions. These findings highlight the necessity of differentiated, region-specific policy approaches to promote the low-carbon transition of wastewater treatment systems..
Keywords: Carbon emission efficiency, regions, TOPSIS method, wastewater, Yangtze River Economic Belt
Received: 15 Dec 2025; Accepted: 27 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Chu, Jiang, Jiang and Cheng. 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: Ping Jiang
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