Spatial–Temporal Evolution and Driving Factors of Coupling Coordination between High-Quality Urban Development and Carbon Emissions Intensity in Guangdong Province

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I would like to thank authors for their efforts. It is interesting paper. However, I have some comment that may improve quality of paper.

 

1.     Why authors did not provide any justification about the selection of carbon emissions intensity? Why they did not select CO2 emissions? CO2 emissions is widely used by authors and can give a clear picture rather than any partial indicator such as carbon emissions intensity.

 

2.     China is the largest contributor to the climate risks and pollution worldwide. What is the opinion of authors in this challenge, in the context of the relationship between high-quality urban development and carbon emissions intensity?

 

3.     The authors did not present anything about international practices in terms of the driving factors of coupling coordination between quality of urban development and carbon emissions intensity. It is important to provide a number of international practices in this domain.

 

4.     The authors conclude that technology development, environmental governance, and economic growth positively influenced the coupling coordination degree. Here, the question is what does environmental governance mean? Why authors did not say anything about carbon emissions intensity, here?

 

5.     Theoretical aspect in narrow and limited. For example, authors wrote in page 2, lines 64-65 “Many scholars have studied the relationship between carbon emission and urban high-quality development [13-15]”. They used term “many” at the same time they citied 3 references only. Authors should extend the literature.

 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer#1:

I would like to thank authors for their efforts. It is interesting paper. However, I have some comment that may improve quality of paper.

1. Why authors did not provide any justification about the selection of carbon emissions intensity? Why they did not select CO2 emissions? CO2 emissions is widely used by authors and can give a clear picture rather than any partial indicator such as carbon emissions intensity.

Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions represent the release of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere in a specific region, while carbon emissions intensity refers to the amount of carbon emissions produced per unit of a specific indicator or activity, such as GDP value. CO2 emissions can be easily understood and calculated, while carbon emission intensity enjoys several advantages. First, with the characteristic of normalization, it is possible to compare the carbon emission efficiency among regions, industries and activities of different scales and production levels, offering a fair basis for assessing carbon emissions. Second, as a valuable concept in understanding how efficiently carbon emissions are associated with specific activities, carbon emission intensity plays a critical role in environmental assessments, climate change mitigation strategies, and making informed decisions to reduce the carbon footprint of various processes and sectors. To improve readability of our paper, we attempt to add some explanation about the selection of carbon emission intensity in the part of 2.1.1. The addition is marked in red as follows:

2.1.1. Accounting of Carbon Emission Intensity

Carbon emission intensity refers to carbon dioxide emissions per GDP value, indicating how clean a country or region's economy is. Carbon emission intensity enjoys some advantages over carbon dioxide emissions. On the one hand, with the characteristic of normalization, it is possible to compare the carbon emission efficiency among regions, industries and activities of different scales and production levels, offering a fair basis for assessing carbon emissions. On the other hand, as a valuable concept in understanding how efficiently carbon emissions are associated with specific activities, carbon emission intensity plays a critical role in environmental assessments, climate change mitigation strategies, and making informed decisions to reduce the carbon footprint of various processes and sectors. Official statistics lack data on the carbon emissions of prefectural-level cities, let alone the carbon emission intensity of prefectural-level cities. Given data availability, this paper applied the carbon emissions from CEADs, covering from 2000 to 2017. Besides, the GDP data of prefectural-level cities stemmed from the China City Statistical Yearbook. In this paper, the GDP deflator method is used to make the calculation results of different years comparable; that is, the appropriate GDP index (yuan at 2000 constant prices) was used to adjust all of the monetary data. The calculation formula is as follows:

                               (1)

where i and t represent the city and the year, respectively. Carbon emission intensity was assumed to be a negative indicator, normalized and standardized.

 

2. China is the largest contributor to the climate risks and pollution worldwide. What is the opinion of authors in this challenge, in the context of the relationship between high-quality urban development and carbon emissions intensity?

Response: Thanks for your feedback. As the largest contributor to global carbon emissions, China encounters a dilemma of economic growth and environmental protection. In recent years, China’s rapid urbanization and economic growth have led to increased carbon emissions and air pollution, and these issues are closely related to the quality of urban development. The challenges China is faced with are as follows. First, to achieve emission reduction goals, China needs to balance the goals of high-quality urban development with aggressive emission reduction targets. This involves transitioning from traditional, high-emission industries to cleaner and more sustainable practices, resulting in lowering carbon emission intensity. Second, sustainable urban planning and design. High-quality urban development should prioritize eco-friendly urban planning and design. This includes creating green spaces, improving public transportation, and implementing energy-efficient buildings to reduce carbon emissions. Third, effective environmental governance and regulations are essential to ensure that urban development aligns with reduced carbon emissions. Stringent policies on pollution control, waste management, and emissions standards need to be enforced.

 

3. The authors did not present anything about international practices in terms of the driving factors of coupling coordination between quality of urban development and carbon emissions intensity. It is important to provide a number of international practices in this domain.

Response: Thanks for your careful suggestion. We added a paragraph concerning driving factors of coupling coordination between urban development and carbon emission in foreign countries, such as Kazakhstan, ASAEN nations, in the part of Introduction to make our article more comprehensive. The addition is marked in red in the main text and as follows.

Many scholars have studied the relationship between carbon emission and urban high-quality development, regarding unilateral relationship [22-24] and bilateral relationship [25-27]. On the one hand, some literature analyzed the unidirectional relationship between carbon emission and specific aspects of high-quality development [28, 29]. Rapid industrial transformation consumes massive energy use, resulting in a large-scale of carbon emission, especially in India, Egypt and other developing countries [30, 31]. In particular, Pan et al. (2020) took Stockholm County, Sweden as a case study, analyzing the temporal change of greenhouse gas emissions under urban development [32]. Wang et al. (2016) investigated the effect of urbanization on carbon emission in BRICS countries, esteeming that there is a long-run causality from urbanization to carbon emission [33]. On the other hand, some scholars investigated the coupling coordination between carbon emission and specific aspects of high-quality development [34, 35]. Zhang et al. (2023) explored coupling coordination degree between socio-economic development and carbon emission of 76 contracting countries in The Paris Agreement, concluding that coupling coordination degree at the global level is not symmetrical in spatial distribution. That is, European countries were generally higher than the African [36]. Wang et al. (2015) applied semi-parametric panel fixed effects regression model to investigate the coupling between urbanization and carbon emissions in OECD countries, verifying the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis [37]. Huang et al. (2020) analyzed the temporal change and driving factors of the coupling coordination degree of urbanization and ecological environment in Kazakhstan [38].

Moreover, some scholars attempted to probe into the influencing factors of coupling coordination between urban development and carbon emissions [39-41]. Yang et al. (2023) used coupled coordination models and panel regression models in 166 countries to identify the influencing factors of coupling coordination of sustainable development, concluding that carbon emissions have a significant spatial spill-over effect on sustainable development coupling coordination degree [42]. Taking Kazakhstan as an example, Huang et al. (2020) discovered that GDP per capita and social fixed asset investment per capita, employment in industry and services affected positively the coupling coordination degree of urbanization and ecological environment [38]. With the IPAT/Kaya approach and variance analysis technology, Chontanawat (2018) investigated the driving factors of the relationship between increasing carbon emission and economic growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during 1971-2013, concluding that population growth and per-capita income increase were the most important factors increase carbon emission [43]. However, only few studies focused on the driving factors of coupling coordination between urban development and carbon emission intensity [44, 45].

 

4. The authors conclude that technology development, environmental governance, and economic growth positively influenced the coupling coordination degree. Here, the question is what does environmental governance mean? Why authors did not say anything about carbon emissions intensity, here?

Response: We are very grateful to your comments for the conclusion. In our analysis, environmental governance refers to strict environmental control and continuous improvement in pollutant treatment, measured as the indicators of qualified amount of industrial waste water and percentage of municipal sewage disposal. Besides, the analysis part of influencing factors is concerning the coupling coordination degree between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. In other words, strict environmental control and continuous improvement in pollutant treatment can reduce carbon emission intensity, improve environmental quality, and enhance coupling coordination. The modifications are as follows:

Notably, technological advancement, environmental governance, and economic development emerge as pivotal factors positively affect carbon emission intensity reduction, environmental quality improvement, and coupling coordination enhancement.

 

5. Theoretical aspect in narrow and limited. For example, authors wrote in page 2, lines 64-65 “Many scholars have studied the relationship between carbon emission and urban high-quality development [13-15]”. They used term “many” at the same time they citied 3 references only. Authors should extend the literature.

Response: Thanks for your suggestion concerning the literature. We have added some literature in this part, and the addition is marked in red as follows.

Many scholars have studied the relationship between carbon emission and urban high-quality development, regarding unilateral relationship [22-24] and bilateral relationship [25-27].

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I found the article very interesting, since it tries to generate knowledge on an important topic, such coupling high-quality urban development and carbon emissions. Additionally, the use of statistical methods proposed by the authors is extremely interesting.

However, I want to make a series of comments for the authors, with issues that I think could be improved in the article and some errors that I have found:

1. The literature review is generally sufficient, but it is based only on research in China. It seems worth referring to research conducted in other parts of the world.
2. Line 111 the CEAD abbreviation requires expansion.
3. The text repeats three times: "China City Statistical Yearbook, the Guangdong Statistical Year book and statistical bulletins of prefectural-level cities." You only need to write it once
4. Figure 2: Overal score – what is it? This requires a more detailed explanation

In general, the article is of a good standard. Research on coupling coordination between urban development and carbon emissions is of both scientific and practical importance. They can influence urban development policies. Of course, we must be aware that this type of research concerns local conditions and it will be difficult to transfer it to broader aspects. This is made more difficult by the fact that the authors somewhat distance themselves from world research, which is visible in the list of literature. The authors do not refer to them, neither in the literature review nor in the discussion. This is the only serious criticism against this article.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer#2:

I found the article very interesting, since it tries to generate knowledge on an important topic, such coupling high-quality urban development and carbon emissions. Additionally, the use of statistical methods proposed by the authors is extremely interesting.

However, I want to make a series of comments for the authors, with issues that I think could be improved in the article and some errors that I have found:

1. The literature review is generally sufficient, but it is based only on research in China. It seems worth referring to research conducted in other parts of the world.

Response: Thanks for your guidance. We have added some research conducted in other countries, such as India, Egypt, and developed countries. The additions were marked in red in the main text and as follows.

Many scholars have studied the relationship between carbon emission and urban high-quality development, regarding unilateral relationship [22-24] and bilateral relationship [25-27]. On the one hand, some literature analyzed the unidirectional relationship between carbon emission and specific aspects of high-quality development [28, 29]. Rapid industrial transformation consumes massive energy use, resulting in a large-scale of carbon emission, especially in India, Egypt and other developing countries [30, 31]. In particular, Pan et al. (2020) took Stockholm County, Sweden as a case study, analyzing the temporal change of greenhouse gas emissions under urban development [32]. Wang et al. (2016) investigated the effect of urbanization on carbon emission in BRICS countries, esteeming that there is a long-run causality from urbanization to carbon emission [33]. On the other hand, some scholars investigated the coupling coordination between carbon emission and specific aspects of high-quality development [34, 35]. Zhang et al. (2023) explored coupling coordination degree between socio-economic development and carbon emission of 76 contracting countries in The Paris Agreement, concluding that coupling coordination degree at the global level is not symmetrical in spatial distribution. That is, European countries were generally higher than the African [36]. Wang et al. (2015) applied semi-parametric panel fixed effects regression model to investigate the coupling between urbanization and carbon emissions in OECD countries, verifying the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis [37]. Huang et al. (2020) analyzed the temporal change and driving factors of the coupling coordination degree of urbanization and ecological environment in Kazakhstan [38].

Moreover, some scholars attempted to probe into the influencing factors of coupling coordination between urban development and carbon emissions [39-41]. Yang et al. (2023) used coupled coordination models and panel regression models in 166 countries to identify the influencing factors of coupling coordination of sustainable development, concluding that carbon emissions have a significant spatial spill-over effect on sustainable development coupling coordination degree [42]. Taking Kazakhstan as an example, Huang et al. (2020) discovered that GDP per capita and social fixed asset investment per capita, employment in industry and services affected positively the coupling coordination degree of urbanization and ecological environment [38]. With the IPAT/Kaya approach and variance analysis technology, Chontanawat (2018) investigated the driving factors of the relationship between increasing carbon emission and economic growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during 1971-2013, concluding that population growth and per-capita income increase were the most important factors increase carbon emission [43]. However, only few studies focused on the driving factors of coupling coordination between urban development and carbon emission intensity [44, 45].

 

2. Line 111 the CEAD abbreviation requires expansion.

Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. We offered the full name of CEADs and its website. The modification is as follows:

Given data availability, this paper applied the carbon emissions from Carbon Emission Accounts and Datasets (CEADs)[1], covering from 2000 to 2017.

 

3. The text repeats three times: "China City Statistical Yearbook, the Guangdong Statistical Year book and statistical bulletins of prefectural-level cities." You only need to write it once

Response: Thank you for your careful comments. Actually, these are mainly two different data sources. Statistical bulletins of prefectural-level cities are also from Guangdong Statistics Bureau. China City Statistical Yearbook is an annual statistical publication. It reflects comprehensively the economic and social development of Cities in China. It covers the main socio-economic statistical data of cities at all levels, the data comes from the relevant departments of each city. The Guangdong Statistical Yearbook is an annual statistical publication, which reflects comprehensively the economic and social development of Guangdong Province. It covers key statistical data in some historically important years since 1978 at the provincial level and the local levels of city, county and district. Statistical bulletins of prefectural-level cities are official statistical reports issued by Guangdong Statistics Bureau, which is published annually. To make our study much clearer, we modified this sentence and the modification is marked in red as follows:

The original data were from the China City Statistical Yearbook and Guangdong Statistics Yearbook. Some missing data were supplemented and improved by interpolation method.

 

4. Figure 2: Overall score – what is it? This requires a more detailed explanation

Response: Thanks for your suggestion. Overall score refers to the score of high-quality development level. It is calculated based on Entropy Weight Method and reflects the status of social, economic and ecological development in a region. We added this explanation under Figure 2. The addition is as follows:

Figure 2. Evaluation score in Guangdong province from 2000 to 2019. Overall score refers to the score of high-quality development level, calculated based on equation (9).

 

In general, the article is of a good standard. Research on coupling coordination between urban development and carbon emissions is of both scientific and practical importance. They can influence urban development policies. Of course, we must be aware that this type of research concerns local conditions and it will be difficult to transfer it to broader aspects. This is made more difficult by the fact that the authors somewhat distance themselves from world research, which is visible in the list of literature. The authors do not refer to them, neither in the literature review nor in the discussion. This is the only serious criticism against this article.

Response: Thanks for your valuable comment. We agree that our research tends to focus on specific locations and it is more likely affect local urban development policies. Therefore, we added some literature concerning urban development and carbon emissions in foreign regions, and introduced some of them in Discussion.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper does not explain what it is doing coherently up front but instead provides that basic explanation over time. This should be more clearly organized and put up front or it should be submitted to a more specialist journal. The paper presents the case and the purpose from a domestic Chinese perspective that should be explained for a non-Chinese audience instead of assuming familiarity with domestic Chinese goals and conditions.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Comments on the Quality of English Language

There are numerous small errors requiring a closer review of the English. 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer#3:

This paper is interesting and ultimately merits publication in one form or another, though there are some significant issues with it and it is not ready for publication in anything near this form. The paper presents an interesting methodological development using an interesting and significant case.

However, the paper is written as though it was prepared for a specialist Chinese audience familiar with the context and with the methodology. The text should be modified to be clearer for a broader audience. Relatively minor changes can be made to the explanation of the methodology and the context and results can be explained with a more global audience in mind.

1. There needs to be better and clearer explanation of the methodology, its purpose, and its use up front instead of assuming familiarity and dribbling piecemeal explanations through the text and some of this seems to be affected by some organizational issues. Some examples are below:

1.“coupling coordination’ is introduced and used repeatedly without explanation until 2.2.2. where coupling is explained but coordination, coupling coordination, and coupling coordination degree are not.

Response: Indeed, it will be much clearer to give some explanations concerning these key concepts when they are first introduced. Therefore, we added a paragraph in Introduction and illustrated the concepts of coupling, coordination, coupling coordination and coupling coordination degree.

Revision: As a concept of physical science, coupling refers to a phenomenon in which two or more than two systems influence each other via different interactions [5]. Coupling degree measures the strength of interaction and the degree of correlation between the systems [6], but in some cases, it cannot explain the synergies between the systems [7]. Hence, the concept of coupling coordination is proposed to reflect the coupling and synergies between the systems. Coordination, the process of organizing and synchronizing various elements or activities to work together effectively, can explain the sustainability of the system [8]. Coupling coordination degree model is an adequate model to measure both the coupling and coordination relationship among systems, which has been widely used in studies of high-quality development [9, 10]. Given the nature of these concepts, the analysis of the coupling coordination between high-quality urban development and carbon emissions would provide an effective support for facilitating the coordinated development of economy, society and environment in a region.

 

2. Line 111 CEAD is introduced without explanation.

Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. We offered the full name of CEADs and its website. The modification is as follows:

Given data availability, this paper applied the carbon emissions from Carbon Emission Accounts and Datasets (CEADs)[1], covering from 2000 to 2017.

 

3. Line 122 2.1.2. “Cointegration test” is not explained and the text does not seem to match the heading.

Response: Thanks for your suggestion. It is a clerical error and we revised the title. This part is mainly about constructing an evaluation index system of high-quality urban development. Therefore, the title is Evaluation index of high-quality urban development level, which is marked in red in the text.

 

4. The language referring to the degrees of coupling coordination is confusing when relating to low degrees. Levels of “disorder” are not the inverse of levels of coordination and clear language referring to something like “extreme lack of coordination,” “moderate lack of coordination,” “mild lack of coordination,” and “barely in coordination” should be substituted. Alternately, a chart may be provided explaining the meaning of the terms used in common language.

Response: We really appreciate your suggestion. It will be more profound and formal to substitute these terms relating to low degrees. We also referred to several literature concerning the coupling coordination between urban development and environment, and explained the term. For example,

The higher degree of coupling coordination indicates a strong relationship between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity, and high-quality development and carbon emission tend to make sound progress in coordination. When the D value is less than 0.5, it is coordinated at a lower level and called as incoordination, indicating lower-quality urban development and worse carbon emission [46].

 

5. “coupling coordination” is used in the text interchangeably with “coupling coordination degree.” It should either be explained as “coupling coordination degree” or “degree of coupling coordination” unless something else is clearly intended.

Response: We agree with the reviewer that consistent terminology is much clearer for readers. In this study, coupling coordination degree reflects the degree or the value of coupling coordination. We have revised the expression, adopted the term of coupling coordination degree and the revisions are marked in red in the main text.

 

6. 2.2.2. and 2.2.3. both have the same heading “Coupling Coordination Degree Model”-this must be in error.

Response: Thanks for your reminder. This is a clerical error. The title of 2.2.3 is Moran’s test. The modification is marked in red in the main text.

 

1. The paper appears to be written for a Chinese audience intimately familiar with the context (reference to the Chinese term “reform and opening up” without contextual mention of market reforms, mentioning the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee as explanation without mention of the meaning for a non- domestic audience). There is an assumption made in lines 36-37 about China’s need that would make sense to a domestic audience but needs to be contextualized and explained for those outside of the PRC. The paper has a lot to say to a global audience but needs to be written so that those living in the rest of the world can understand the need for a linkage between development, high-quality development, green development, etc.

Mention is made to “the government” and the need for a “correct understanding” in ways that make sense for a purely domestic audience, but which would not have the same meaning in South Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, et al.

Some more context for a global audience to understand the need, and the role of Chinese actors in this process would be supremely helpful in this regard. The policy recommendations sound meaningful to an audience more familiar with the current state of Chinese urbanism but generic to those without that background and an effort should be made to bridge the gap.

Response: Thanks for your careful reminder. First, we have replaced the reform and opening-up initiatives with rapid economic growth in the main text, because Guangdong Province is also assumed as the leader of China’s economic growth. Second, we added the explanation for the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee in the footnote, so that the readers can have a better understanding of China. Third, we have replaced the government with Chinese government, so the readers from foreign countries could misunderstand. Last, we have modified the policy recommendations by mentioning the role of China in the process of global urbanization. The modifications are marked in red in the main text.

 

III.     There are some random things that should be considered, whether or not action is taken.

1. Line 115 Reference is made to “(yuan at constant 2000 prices)”-elsewhere reference is made to the unit of “10000 yuan”-is that is what is meant here?

Response: “(yuan at constant 2000 prices)” refers to constant price series with the data for each year in the prices of a chosen reference year, that is, 2000. Hence, 2000 is the year. For readability, we have changed “(yuan at constant 2000 prices)” to “constant 2000 yuan” in the text.

 

2. Lines 81-2 incoordination to coordination -> uncoordinated to coordinated; incoordination is an unusual term having to deal with biology and anatomy. The usage here is adjectival. To maintain the noun usage, change to “a state lacking coordination to one of coordination” though the adjectival usage is far more elegant and legible. If you have found “incoordination” used in this sense before, then you should explain its meaning and cite it for clarity because it sounds much more like “onset of paralysis” than the “lack of coordination” that is intended.

Response: Thanks for pointing out this expression. First, we have modified the classifications of coupling coordination degree in Table 3. More importantly, we explained the meaning of the terms. The higher degree of coupling coordination indicates a strong relationship between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity, and high-quality development and carbon emission tend to make sound progress in coordination. Second, we have found “incoordination” used in this sense in many previous studies. For instance, Shi et al. (2020) applied Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression (GTWR) to measure the coupling coordination between economic development and ecological environment of 17 tropical and subtropical regions in China from 2003 to 2016. Combined with coupling coordination degree model and geographically and temporally weighted regression, Li et al. (2021) analyzed the interaction relationship between urbanization and ecosystem health (UAEH) in Chongqing at the county scale during 1997-2015. We also explained “incoordination” in the main text. Here is the modification:

The higher degree of coupling coordination indicates a strong relationship between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity, and high-quality development and carbon emission tend to make sound progress in coordination. When the D value is less than 0.5, it is coordinated at a lower level and called as incoordination, indicating lower-quality urban development and worse carbon emission [46].

 

3. Lines 89-90, 140, 167, 174, 210-11, et al. “our/We”: Usage of first person in English sounds casual and informal and downplays credibility so a paper is better written in third person whenever possible.

Revision: Thanks for your careful reminder. We have revised the expression and avoided the usage of first person. The revisions are as follows.

(1) In light of this, our research endeavors to craft a robust evaluation metric for assessing high-quality urban development.

Revision: In light of this, this research endeavors to craft a robust evaluation metric for assessing high-quality urban development.

 

(2) According to He and Liu (2022) [31] and Jiang et al. (2022) [32], we built a system of influencing factors of coupling coordination between carbon emissions and high-quality urban development, involving technology development, environmental governance and economic development (Table 2).

Revision: According to He and Liu (2022) [31] and Jiang et al. (2022) [32], this study built a system of influencing factors of coupling coordination between carbon emissions and high-quality urban development, involving technology development, environmental governance and economic development (Table 2).

 

(3) We further standardized the indicators and obtained a new matrix R=. .

Revision: This study further standardized the indicators and obtained a new matrix R=. .

 

(4) We can calculate the contribution of the i year under the j index with the following equation:

Revision: The contribution of the i year under the j index can be calculated with the following equation:

 

(5) Before we conducted the panel analysis, we applied the spatial autocorrelation model to detect the correlation of observed values between neighboring locations within a geographic space.

Revision: Before the panel analysis is conducted, the spatial autocorrelation model was applied to detect the correlation of observed values between neighboring locations within a geographic space.

 

1. The English is generally written well but there are a number of issues, including the examples below that suggest a need for a closer review of the English in the text.

Response: Thank you very much for your careful reading of our paper, and the manuscript has been thoroughly revised to avoid grammar mistakes. The revisions are marked in red as follows.

 

1. Line 37 carbon peak -> peak carbon or a carbon peak

China needs to realize high-quality development by achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality and adhering to the concept of green development.

Revision: China needs to realize high-quality development by achieving a carbon peak and carbon neutrality and adhering to the concept of green development.

 

2. Lines 64-5 order of adjectives: urban high-quality development -> high quality urban development

Many scholars have studied the relationship between carbon emission and urban high-quality development [13-15].

Revision: Many scholars have studied the relationship between carbon emission and high-quality urban development [13-15].

 

3. Line 66 number carbon emission -> carbon emissions

On the one hand, some literature analyzed the unidirectional relationship between carbon emission and specific aspects of high-quality development [16, 17].

Revision: On the one hand, some literature analyzed the unidirectional relationship between carbon emissions and specific aspects of high-quality development [16, 17].

 

4. Line 109 possessive use: country -> country’s

Carbon emission intensity refers to carbon dioxide emissions per GDP value, indicating how clean a country or region's economy is.

Revision: Carbon emission intensity refers to carbon dioxide emissions per GDP value, indicating how clean a country’s or region's economy is.

 

5. Line 115 (yuan at constant 2000 prices) -> (constant 2000 yuan)

In this paper, the GDP deflator method is used to make the calculation results of different years comparable; that is, the appropriate GDP index (yuan at 2000 constant prices) was used to adjust all of the monetary data.

Revision: In this paper, the GDP deflator method is used to make the calculation results of different years comparable; that is, the appropriate GDP index (constant 2000 yuan) was used to adjust all of the monetary data.

 

6. Line 157 order of adjectives: human subjective judgment -> subjective human judgment

The Entropy Weight Method is an objective weighting approach avoiding the biases induced by human subjective judgment [33].

Revision: The Entropy Weight Method is an objective weighting approach avoiding the biases induced by subjective human judgment [33].

 

7. Lines 189-90 Recently, this concept has been -> This concept has recently been

Recently, this concept has been widely used in studies of high-quality development [38, 39].

Revision: This concept has recently been widely used in studies of high-quality development [38, 39].

 

8. Line 251 verb tense: Guandong’s economy grew more than 400 times from 1978-2021

From 1978-2021, Guangdong's economy has grown more than 400 times and replaced Jiangsu province as China's most prominent economic province.

Revision: Guangdong's economy grew more than 400 times from 1978-2021 and replaced Jiangsu province as China's most prominent economic province.

 

9. Line 337 number carbon emission -> carbon emissions

Figure 5. Spatial evolution of coupling coordination degree between carbon emission and urban high-quality development in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2017.

Revision: Figure 5. Spatial evolution of coupling coordination degree between carbon emissions and high-quality urban development in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2017.

 

10. Lines 337-8 order of adjectives: urban high-quality development -> high quality urban development

Figure 5. Spatial evolution of coupling coordination degree between carbon emission and urban high-quality development in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2017.

Revision: Figure 5. Spatial evolution of coupling coordination degree between carbon emissions and high-quality urban development in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2017.

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

A few recommendations for improvement are listed below.

1. Title and Abstract:

(1)   Abstract: The abstract has many irrelevant data. It has room to extend for explaining the core issue and theme of the title and outcomes of the empirical analysis. Please shorten the sentences in related to the findings. Add policy implications to the end of abstract. For instance, the authors need to present the most significant and interesting results concisely, but not detailly.

(2)   Abstract: line 19 and 25 “between carbon emission intensity and high-quality urban development” Please check that here the intensity is required or not.

2. Introduction and Literature Review:

(1)   The introduction is well organized in general. However, the practical background of coupling coordination between high-quality urban development and carbon emissions, i.e., the status of CO₂ and urban economy in Guangdong cities and why decoupling development is significant, should be illustrated for readers. You need briefly introduce the status in cities of Guangdong but not China.

(2)   The literature review of the study can be improved and enriched. Cite relevant references from well reputed journals. Especially on regional economic development and carbon emissions, some works had examined the relationship for China’s provinces, as the authors done. For example, “Who shapes China's carbon intensity and how? A demand-side decomposition analysis. Energy Economics, 2020”, “Decoupling CO2 Emissions from Economic Growth in China’s Cities from 2000 to 2020: A Case Study of the Pearl River Delta Agglomeration, Land, 2023”, etc. Please review these studies and justify the contributions of your work.

(3)   In the last paragraph of the introduction, the authors claimed the contribution and novelty of this study. However, the two contributions are marginal. Are there any original contributions in decoupling models and methods? Especially for urban areas like Guangdong and other regional levels, what are the differences? Please highlight your contributions to the literature and new knowledge.

3. Methodology and Data

(1)   In brief, the methodology is ambiguous, and I could not understand what methodology they have used to achieve the research goals. In other words, the methodology needs modification with proper arguments in a scientific way. Therefore, the authors are advised to draw the conceptual framework to help readers understand the required steps to conduct the paper.

(2)   The indicator of high-quality development should be defined according with existing literature.

(3)   The spatial variation of cities in Guangdong should be briefly analyzed in section “2.3. Study Area”.

 4. Results and discussion:

(1)   The authors should analyze and discuss the results thoroughly. The authors could make some comparative analyses with previous studies.

(2)   In addition, the authors limited their discussions to the results, but not extended to the practical background of China’s urban high-quality development, regional decoupling development, and carbon emissions. This weakens the significance of this study.

 5. Conclusions and policy implications

(1)   The main findings should be presented more clearly in separated paragraphs in conclusions. For example, first, second, third, and so on.

 

(2)   The policy implications should be added. Tell how to do but not should do what.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

There are some grammar and typo mistakes in this manuscript. Please ask some native English writers to help you improve this paper. 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer#4:

A few recommendations for improvement are listed below.

1. Title and Abstract:

(1) Abstract: The abstract has many irrelevant data. It has room to extend for explaining the core issue and theme of the title and outcomes of the empirical analysis. Please shorten the sentences in related to the findings. Add policy implications to the end of abstract. For instance, the authors need to present the most significant and interesting results concisely, but not detailly.

Response: We really appreciate your comments. For clarity and conciseness, we modified the abstract and the modifications are marked in red as follows.

Abstract: Promoting urban green growth necessitates a dual focus on reducing carbon emissions and fostering high-quality development. However, the body of research in the coupling relationship between high-quality urban development and carbon emissions remains remarkably limited. Taking Guangdong province as an example, this study strived to establish a comprehensive evaluation system for high-quality urban development encompassing economic, societal, and ecological dimensions, and further conducted an in-depth examination of the spatiotemporal pattern and driving forces of coupling coordination between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity during 2000-2017. The coupling coordination degree in Guangdong province has shown a continuous growth, transitioning from moderate incoordination to moderate coordination. The coupling coordination degree showed the overall spatial distribution characteristics of “high in southeast and low in others”, taking Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen as the core. Notably, technological advancement, environmental governance, and economic development emerge as pivotal factors positively affect carbon emission intensity reduction, environmental quality improvement, and coupling coordination enhancement. This research provides valuable insights for achieving harmonized high-quality development in Guangdong province involving policies of regional differences, industrial competitiveness and new-type urbanization.

 

(2) Abstract: line 19 and 25 “between carbon emission intensity and high-quality urban development” Please check that here the intensity is required or not.

Response: Thanks for your reminder. Actually, this analysis investigated coupling coordination between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. For clarity, we modified the title, which is marked in red.

 

2. Introduction and Literature Review:

(1) The introduction is well organized in general. However, the practical background of coupling coordination between high-quality urban development and carbon emissions, i.e., the status of CO2 and urban economy in Guangdong cities and why decoupling development is significant, should be illustrated for readers. You need briefly introduce the status in cities of Guangdong but not China.

Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion. It will be more convincing to introduce the current status of carbon emissions and urban economy in Guangdong. Thus, we added a paragraph in Introduction concerning the situation of Guangdong and its need to achieve higher coupling coordination of high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. The addition is as follows.

Guangdong province has been at the forefront of China's reform and opening-up initiatives since 1978. In 2022, Guangdong's GDP exceeded 12.9 trillion yuan, ranking first in China for 34 consecutive years. Meanwhile, the urbanization rate of permanent residents in Guangdong reached 71.3%, far higher than the national average (64.8%). In light of this, Guangdong had the largest volume of carbon emissions with 266 million ton in 2022, but its carbon emission intensity was the third lowest nationwide. As a leading economic region in China, Guangdong performed well in economic growth and environmental performance, but it still faced various challenges of achieving sustainable and green development, such as pronounced urban-rural development disparities, lacking of effective mechanism of emissions reduction and stubborn industrial structure. Therefore, it is imperative for Guangdong to incorporate dual carbon strategy into high-quality urban development. The precondition is to explore the coupling relationship between urban development and carbon emission intensity over time and space. Moreover, the practice of Guangdong offers insights for other cities to achieve the balance of rapid economic growth and improved environmental efficiency.

 

(2) The literature review of the study can be improved and enriched. Cite relevant references from well reputed journals. Especially on regional economic development and carbon emissions, some works had examined the relationship for China’s provinces, as the authors done. For example, “Who shapes China's carbon intensity and how? A demand-side decomposition analysis. Energy Economics, 2020”, “Decoupling CO2 Emissions from Economic Growth in China’s Cities from 2000 to 2020: A Case Study of the Pearl River Delta Agglomeration, Land, 2023”, etc. Please review these studies and justify the contributions of your work.

Response: Thanks for your suggestion. We have modified the literature review in red in the main text by citing more well reputed journals. Please refer to the main text.

 

(3) In the last paragraph of the introduction, the authors claimed the contribution and novelty of this study. However, the two contributions are marginal. Are there any original contributions in decoupling models and methods? Especially for urban areas like Guangdong and other regional levels, what are the differences? Please highlight your contributions to the literature and new knowledge.

Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestion concerning the contributions of this study. Indeed, it will be more convincing that we highlight our contributions in the way of comparison with previous studies. The modifications are marked in red as follows.

Revision: This research contributes to the literature in the following aspects. First, this paper attempted to establish a comprehensive evaluation index system of high-quality development concerning innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing, whereas previous studies focused more on one or two aspects of high-quality development, especially economy and ecology. Second, in contrast to previous literature that explored the coupling relationship between urban development and carbon emission, this research paid attention to carbon emission intensity, measuring the environmental performance and efficiency. Third, multiple aspects of high-quality urban development are addressed in order to investigate the driving forces of the coordinated development of carbon emission intensity and high-quality development from different perspectives. This study endeavors to provide some insightful implications for harmonized and effective high-quality development in Guangdong province and even in other regions.

 

3. Methodology and Data

(1) In brief, the methodology is ambiguous, and I could not understand what methodology they have used to achieve the research goals. In other words, the methodology needs modification with proper arguments in a scientific way. Therefore, the authors are advised to draw the conceptual framework to help readers understand the required steps to conduct the paper.

Response: We thank the reviewer for pointing this out. We have modified the Methodology and Data by adding a paragraph about the data processing procedure at the beginning of this part. More importantly, the flowchart of methodology was supplemented in the main text. The modifications are as follows.

First, this paper calculated carbon emission intensity and constructed a comprehensive evaluation index system of high-quality urban development level based on existing literature. Second, Hausman test was employed to select the key influencing factors of coupling coordination between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. Third, Entropy Weight Method was utilized to calculate a comprehensive score of high-quality urban development, and coupling coordination degree model was used to analyze the coupling coordination between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. Last, Moran’s test and Spatial Lag Model were exploited to analyze the spatial correlation of driving factors of coupling coordination. Figure 1 illustrates the conceptual framework of this study.

Figure 1. Flowchart of methodology

 

(2) The indicator of high-quality development should be defined according with existing literature.

Response: We added the sources of indicators of high-quality urban development under Table 1. We adopted these indicators based on Gan et al. (2022) and Bei (2018), which set an enhanced index system of high-quality development.

 

(3) The spatial variation of cities in Guangdong should be briefly analyzed in section “2.3. Study Area”.

Response: Thanks for your careful reminder. The spatial variation of cities in Guangdong have been supplemented in section 2.3, and we also updated Figure 1. The modifications are marked in red as follows.

2.3. Study Area

Situated on the southern coast of mainland China, Guangdong province is a pioneer of reform and opening up (Figure 1). From 1978-2021, Guangdong's economy has grown more than 400 times and replaced Jiangsu province as China's most prominent economic province. In 2022, the gross domestic production (GDP) of Guangdong province amounted to 12.91 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 1.9%. As a significant economic province nationwide, Guangdong province accounted for about 6.7% of the national energy consumption and 5% of national carbon emissions, supporting about 9% of the country's permanent resident population and 10.7% of the national economy. There are 21 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong province, which is divided into Pearl River Delta (PRD), East Guangdong, West Guangdong and North Guangdong. In general, the economic development of Guangdong follows the principle of core-periphery with the PRD as the most developed region. In 2022, with a population of 78.29 million (61.6% of the province), the PRD region produced 10.47 trillion yuan (81% of the province). There is a significant regional disparity in the province. In 2020, Guangdong province's urbanization rate reached 74.2%, entering a mature period of urbanization development, and this rate is projected to reach 82% by 2035. More importantly, 2023 was the first year of the High-Quality Development Project for Counties, Towns and Villages in Guangdong province. Prefecture-level cities have unveiled relevant policies and accelerated the process of high-quality development.

Figure 1. Location of Guangdong province

 

4. Results and discussion:

(1) The authors should analyze and discuss the results thoroughly. The authors could make some comparative analyses with previous studies.

Response: We agree that this study will be more impressing if we make some comparative analyses with previous studies. Therefore, we made some modifications in Results and the modifications are marked in red in the main text.

 

(2) In addition, the authors limited their discussions to the results, but not extended to the practical background of China’s urban high-quality development, regional decoupling development, and carbon emissions. This weakens the significance of this study.

Response: Thanks for your suggestion. We have made some revisions in Discussion and the revisions are as follows.

Consistent with previous studies concerning carbon emission intensity [69], this study concluded that the carbon emission intensity witnessed a substantial decrease by 63.2% in Guangdong Province during 2000-2017. In general, Guangdong takes the lead in high-quality urban development and carbon emission reduction attributed to technological innovation, industrial transformation and government incentives [69]. Therefore, Guangdong made progress in harmony between high-quality development and carbon emission intensity, with a slow and stable increase in coupling coordination degree from 2000 to 2017. However, there was a significant regional disparity in the province. Spatially, the coupling coordination degrees in the PRD region were far higher than that in other regions, and the lowest coupling coordination degree was in North Guangdong, which is supported by previous studies concerning divergence of coupling coordination degree in Guangdong [70, 71]. It was mainly attributed to an imbalance of regional development concerning the economy, society and ecology in the province [72]. In other words, future policy makers should consider regional differences instead of adopting “one size fits all” approach.

Moreover, during the study period, the coupling coordination degree of carbon emission intensity and high-quality economic development exhibits strong positive spatial autocorrelation in Guangdong province, demonstrating that cities are placing more emphasis on environmental protection and sustainable development through enacting more effective policy instruments. This result coincides with current studies that balancing rapid economic growth and environmental sustainability is a priority for many regions to achieve inclusive development [72]. Such a trend aligns with the global requirements for low-carbon, green, and sustainable development. It also indicates that cities have recognized the critical balance between economic development and environmental protection and are progressively achieving it.

According to the results of influencing factors, technology development, environmental governance, and economic development had a significant positive impact on the coupling coordination degree in Guangdong. This finding was also supported by Fengyin et al. [73], who stated that these factors were the key drivers of promoting high-quality development. These factors offer innovation elements and material bases to support higher coupling coordination degree between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. More importantly, compared with other factors, economic development had the highest coefficient, positively affecting the promotion of coupling coordination degree. Over the study period, the economic growth reached over 10% annually and the urbanization growth has been above the national level in Guangdong Province. This result implies that economic development is a priority for achieving higher-quality development.

Besides, previous studies prove that strict environmental control is conducive to improving environmental performance, but the impact on the growth of productivity will become weaker with stricter environmental control [74]. In other words, stricter environmental governance will help improve coupling coordination degree between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. It is accordance with China’s goal of upgrade and reconstruction as well as industrial structure adjustment. Recently, Guangdong has pioneered in clean production, recycle transformation and new energy industry, promoting comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.

 

5. Conclusions and policy implications

(1) The main findings should be presented more clearly in separated paragraphs in conclusions. For example, first, second, third, and so on.

Response: Indeed, it will be much clearer to put the main findings in separated paragraphs with the conjunctions. The revisions are as follows.

This study aimed to develop an evaluation index system for high-quality urban development focusing on innovation, coordination, green practices, openness, and sharing. Taking Guangdong as an example, we examined the relationship between carbon emission intensity and high-quality development across 21 prefectural-level cities from 2000 to 2017 using the entropy weight method, the coupling coordination degree model, the spatial autocorrelation method, and the Spatial Lag Model. The main results are as follows.

First, Guangdong province witnessed a gradual and consistent rise in its coupling coordination degree, transitioning from a phase of mild disorder to one of moderate coordination during the study period. Second, regarding spatial distribution, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Shenzhen formed the primary core, with Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, and Huizhou serving as secondary hubs and the remaining cities acting as peripheral areas. Third, in Guangdong province, the degree of coupling coordination between carbon emission intensity and high-quality economic development shows a pronounced positive spatial correlation. Moreover, technology development, environmental governance, and economic growth positively influenced the coupling coordination degree.

 

 (2) The policy implications should be added. Tell how to do but not should do what.

Response: Thanks for your valuable comment. We have modified the part of policy implications, and the modifications are marked in red as follows.

Based on the above findings, the following policy recommendations are provided. First, it is imperative to regulate differentiated economic development strategies at the city level. This study confirmed that there was significant regional disparity of coupling coordination degree in the province. Therefore, differentiated economic transformation strategies are suitable for optimal industrial transformation. Second, it is necessary to reinforce inter-city collaborations concerning technological innovation, skill training and investment projects, to uplift the sub-core cities like Jiangmen, Zhaoqing and Huizhou. This research discovered peripheral cities have the potential to achieve harmonized growth of high-quality urban development by fostering connections between them and the core cities. Third, a more mature policy system involving economic development, environmental governance and technology development should be comprehensively enhanced to give full play to these factors. The results proved that these three factors played a significant positive role in improving coupling coordination degree between high-quality urban development and carbon emission intensity. In other words, integration of technology development, environmental governance and economic development helps Guangdong achieve the goal of higher-quality development.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I have reviewed the revised text and my major concerns have been adequately addressed. I am comfortable with the paper in its present form so long as the concerns of the other reviewers have been adequately addressed to their satisfaction. 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The English is okay overall, but could still use a thorough and critical proofreading.