Research On Low-carbon Developmental Dilemma Of Resource-based Industry Agglomeration

The development of resource-based industries which are in the upstream industry chain will need much more energy and generate much more emission. Considering the situation of industry agglomeration and the requirement of low-carbon development, we will face some dilemmas. For example, the degree of agglomeration is on the rise as well as the environmental quality is in the fall, can we assume that there is a relationship in them. And we should answer this question: can resource-based industries agglomeration be achieved with low-carbon development? The solution of the question can play an important role in the development process of social and economic, especially for the areas of Midwest China.In this thesis, we focus on the resource-based industries of China according to the theories of agglomeration, sustainable development and externality. Three hypotheses of path dependence, short-term effects and excessive agglomeration have been built. The possible dilemma that may be encounter in resource-based industry agglomeration with low-carbon development has been analyzed. Those questions have been answered by doing some empirical analysis of agglomeration degree, agglomeration mode, carbon emission, the best agglomeration scale and so on. In the end, some proposals to achieve low-carbon development of resource-based industries agglomeration have been offered.The main results of this study include:(1) The theoretical analysis framework of dilemma between resource-based industry agglomeration and low-carbon development has been built.According to the theories of agglomeration, sustainable development and externality, three hypotheses of path dependence, short-term effects and excessive agglomeration have been built in this paper.(2) It can be seen that there is path dependence dilemma in the agglomeration mode of resource-based industry, which is obtained by doing empirical analysis.According to narrowly concept, we firstly defined 11 industries as resource-based industries, then calculated the agglomeration degree. It illustrates that it has entered the cluster development stage, but it shows uneven feature. For example, the agglomeration degree of primary processing industries is less than extractive industries. Besides, by analyzing the agglomeration mode, this paper confirmed the first hypotheses, there is the path dependence dilemma in the process of the low-carbon development for resource-based industries. The agglomeration mode of dependent on natural resources and government will cause the extrusion of talent and technology. So the agglomeration mode should be transformed from government-led to market driven, to make sure the technology and talent can play an important role in the process of low-carbon development.(3) It shows that the agglomeration development of resource-based industry is in short-term effects dilemma by doing empirical analysis.The agglomeration mode dependent on natural resources and government will cause the situation of excessive concern on economic and government performance rather than environmental issues. This paper calculated the carbon emission of resource-based industries, analyzed the regional differences and estimated the benefits of carbon emissions. By doing this empirical analysis, the second hypothesis has been confirmed. There is the short-term effects dilemma in the process of the low-carbon development for resource-based industries. Some specific conclusions are as follows. The carbon emission of resource-based industries increases with10.63% of annual average growth rate. The carbon intensity is 2.07, which tends to fall with 9.37% of annual average rate. The carbon emission of primary processing industries is higher than that of extractive industries. The carbon emission of resource-based provinces is higher than that of non-resource-based provinces. And the benefits caused by carbon emission in resource-based provinces are much less than the damages, which is not conducive to the development of low-carbon.(4) By doing empirical analysis, it shows that the best scale threshold of carbon emission has been reduced by agglomeration in resource-based industry.Due to the financial hallucinations and short-sighted government, the excessive agglomeration dilemma is likely to occur. By doing some research about agglomeration influence and mechanism on carbon emissions, this paper confirmed the third hypothesis, and estimated that the best agglomeration scale plays a positive role in reducing carbon emissions. Based on classic Kuznets Curve, this paper built two model between resource-based agglomeration and carbon emission intensives, revealed the influence coefficient and explained the mechanism, as well as estimated the best agglomeration scale is less than or equal to 0.096. If we continue to take simple primary agglomeration mode will cause high carbon emissions, there is a risk of excessive agglomeration. But on the whole, increase the degree of agglomeration of 1% will reduce the carbon emission intensive of 0.838. In the end, it should be noted that the degree of agglomeration of resource-based industries in the mining industry has exceeded or close to the threshold.(5) The low-carbon development path of resource-based industry agglomeration has been proposed.Low-carbon development is a new model of economic development in low energy consumption, low pollution, and low emissions. It emphasizes the harmonious development of economic social and ecological effects. It is important for the sustainable development of economy and society. Based on the situation of resource-based industries is in higher energy consumption, higher carbon emission and agglomeration development, three dilemma of path dependence, short-term effects and excessive agglomeration have been considered. This paper tried to propose some development paths to crack these dilemmas.Firstly, considering the agglomeration mode, it should been transformed from government-led to market driven, to make sure the technology and talent can play an important role in the process of low-carbon development. Secondly, it should start with the concept of establishing a low-carbon development, identify key emission reduction industries, and achieve internal industrial structure upgrading to low-carbon. Thirdly, it should increase the internal diversity of agglomeration, upgrade the mining industry, and prevent excessive agglomeration.Then this paper designs a low-carbon development path of resource-based industries agglomeration, which is transformed from resource-based industries agglomeration to traditional manufacturing agglomeration further to high-end manufacturing agglomeration. In the first upgrade, there are three steps, which are identifying the degree of agglomeration inflection point, accelerating the upgrading of mining industry and improving the agglomeration degree of primary processing industries. In addition, by taking the median of agglomeration degree and carbon emission intensive as the cutoff point, we divided all the resource-based industries into four categories, and designed difference development paths for each one.