China city-level emissions inventory, 2010

As the
centre of human activity and being under the threat of
climate change, cities are considered to be
major components in the implementation of climate change mitigation and CO2
emission reduction strategies. Inventories of cities’ emissions serve as the
foundation for the analysis of emissions characteristics and policymaking.
China is the world’s top energy consumer and CO2 emitter, and it is
facing great potential harm from climate change. Consequently, China is taking increasing
responsibility in the fight against global climate change. Many energy/emissions control
policies have been implemented in China, most of which are designed at the
national level. However, cities are at different stages of industrialization
and have distinct development pathways; they need specific control policies designed based on their
current emissions characteristics. This study is the first to construct
emissions inventories for 182 Chinese cities. The inventories are constructed using
17 fossil fuels and 47 socioeconomic sectors. These city-level emissions
inventories have a
scope and format consistent
with China’s national/provincial inventories. Some socioeconomic data of the
cities, such as GDP, population, industrial structures, are included in the
datasets as well. The dataset provides transparent, accurate, complete,
comparable, and verifiable data support for further city-level emissions
studies and low-carbon/sustainable development policy design. The dataset also offers
insights for other countries by providing an emissions accounting method with
limited data.