An interregional environmental assessment framework: revisiting environmental Kuznets curve in China

Achieving the national emission reduction targets requires joint efforts of all jurisdictions, whose sustainable development is affected by complex economic and environmental interactions among regions. An interregional environmental assessment (IREA) framework is constructed for China using multiregional input–output techniques to unravel the carbon emission connections behind interregional economic activities. Then, consumption-based emission accounting is applied in sustainability assessment, in comparison with production-based environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) tests to examine the role of regional connections in shaping EKC. Empirical results expose significant asymmetric CO2 transfer among regions in China, where the Central and Western regions have become CO2 haven for the Eastern region. EKC is valid at the national level and manifests marked regional differences between production- and consumption-based curves. The pollution haven effect alters the EKC curve by expediting the emission peak in the developed Eastern region while delaying it in the developing Western region. Thus, revisiting EKCs in the IREA framework reveals that ignoring interregional connections would lead to misleading results. Only when both production- and consumption-based EKCs transcend their turning points can we claim that environmental governance has ushered in a new era of sustainable development.