The Impact of Multi-Dimensional Urbanization on CO2 Emissions: Empirical Evidence from Jiangsu, China, at the County Level
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear Authors,
It was a pleasure to review your manuscript, which I evaluate positively. Nonetheless, I had some minor observations, which I intend only for the benefit of your work.
I suggest being more cautious when using words like "summary" and "conclusions" in lines 277-288. If your readers use AI search engines, they might be mistaken for thinking these are the results of your research and not assumptions made after the literature review, as they are in reality.
Did you consider the interrelationships between the three urbanization aspects (population, economy, and land urbanization)? In lines 629-631, you state, "The first finding of this research is that economic and population urbanizations have positive effects on CO2 emissions in Jiangsu province, while land urbanization has no discernible impact." This could actually happen if you consider land urbanization separately from population growth, while in reality, they are strongly correlated.
The policy implication (i) (lines 658-667) runs a bit far away from the knowledge you have examined in the manuscript. For example, what do you mean by "allocating more resources and opportunities to rural areas through the urban-rural integration development." Wouldn't it cause the urban sprawl effect? Wouldn't it expel small agriculture entrepreneurship in the urban fringe? Those are only two examples of risks that you should take into consideration and that are nowadays blamed for multiple sustainability issues in the West. One article is not sufficient to discuss it all. Therefore, I recommend staying as close as you can to your domain and your research results.
The policy implication (ii) is the same: you are departing from your research by proposing increasing energy taxes or prices. Did you consider other aspects of such decisions? E.g., reducing production and unemployment?
I suggest reconsidering this section (conclusions) so that it remains in perfect conformity with your research results. Instead, some ideas for interventions could be added to the discussion chapter.
From the editorial lookout: some references are provided in a different standard than MDPI - make sure the listing is correct.
Author Response
Dear reviewer, Please see the point-by-point response in the attachment. Thank you and have a good day!
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authorssustainability-2930849-review
The Impact of Multi-dimensional Urbanization on CO2 Emissions: An Empirical Evidence from Jiangsu, China at the County Level
This study investigates the direct and indirect effects of population, economic, land urbanizations, economic development, industrial structure, and coal consumption on CO2 emissions in Jiangsu province and examines the regional heterogeneity across three regions. This is an interesting and valuable topic. Only some revisions needed, as follow:
1. The format of the article needs to be carefully checked, as there are numerous formatting and grammar errors, such as superscripts, capitalization, and singular and plural forms. Such as Table 1, CO2 in Figure 4, Figure 1's line 484...
2. Figure 3 is extremely non-standard and lacks numerous image elements. Figure 4 Supplementary sub image names.
3. About 2. Literature review, it should be simplified and further summarized and condensed.
4. About 5. Conclusions and policy implication, it is suggested to elaborate on the two parts separately. In addition, policy recommendations should be refined to the county level.
5. In addition, the quality of language and graphics needs to be significantly improved.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageExtensive editing of English language required
Author Response
Dear reviewer, please see the point-by-point response in the attachment. Thank you and have a good day.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAccept in present form
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageModerate editing of English language required
