Decoupling Analysis And Driving Factors Of Urban Environmental Loads In Northwest China

China’s Development of an Ecological Civilization has entered the fast lane since the 18^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.The green and low-carbon transformation of the economy has become an important approach to promote high-quality development.At present,the contradiction between economic development and environmental protection in some regions is still prominent.Among these regions,Northwest China faces a very difficult problem towards green high-quality development due to underdeveloped economy,fragile natural ecology and severe environmental problems.Therefore,it is extremely urgent to evaluate the level of green development in Northwest China,explore drivers of regional environmental loads and put forward corresponding policy recommendations.This paper took Gansu Province,one of the five northwestern provinces in China,as an example,and evaluated green growth of 14 cities in Gansu Province through decoupling analysis.Then,this paper integrated STIRPAT and Environment Kuznets Curve（EKC）models to study socioeconomic drivers of urban environmental loads including environmental pollutants and carbon emissions.Results show that:（1）During2009-2018,14 cities in Gansu Province showed good performance in green growth as a whole.Ten and 13 cities achieved the decoupling of sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand emissions with economic growth,respectively.All cities reached relative decoupling of carbon emissions.（2）Green growth levels of middle-and high-income cities in Gansu Province were higher than those of low-income cities in general,presenting a positive synergy between economic development and decoupling.（3）Wealth was found to be the common driver for three categories of environmental loads in Gansu Province,and the proportion of secondary industry significantly promoted cities’sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand emissions.Moreover,cities’sulfur dioxide emissions were also positively affected by population and urbanization rate.（4）There were inverted U-shaped EKCs in cities’chemical oxygen demand and carbon emissions in Gansu Province,but neither of them crossed the turning point.This paper enriches the research in evaluation of green development and driving factor analysis of environmental loads in Northwest China.In terms of evaluation method,this paper breaks through the single decoupling index,and puts forward comprehensive evaluation based on economic development level and decoupling indexes.To promote the coordinated development of economy,society and environment in Northwest China,and accelerate green and high-quality transformation of the region,this paper proposes the following policy recommendations:implement categorized policy to promote green and low-carbon transformation;optimize industrial structure and facilitate green production;strengthen green innovation towards environmental protection;take advantage of multi-governance to promote green urbanization.