Research on the Structure of Carbon Emission Efficiency and Influencing Factors in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Climate change caused by CO2 emissions has become one of the most serious environmental problems facing the world today, and it has a strong relevance to sustainability. This paper measures the carbon emission efficiency of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2001 to 2019 using the U-S SBM model. The modified gravity model and social network analysis methods are used to explore its spatially correlated network structure, and QAP regression is used to explore the influencing factors. The results show the following: (1) The spatial correlation of the carbon emission efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration increased during the study period, showing a complex network structure with multiple threads and directions, and a strong mobility of the network. (2) The spatial network of the carbon emission efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration gradually formed a core−edge structure with southern Jiangsu as the core area, northern Zhejiang and central Jiangsu as the secondary core area, and central Anhui and southern Zhejiang as the edge area during the study period. (3) The spatial correlation network of carbon emission efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is divided into “net benefit”, “net spillover”, “two-way spillover”, and “broker”. (4) Differences in energy intensity, government environmental regulations, technology research and development, and economic export orientation are the main factors affecting the spatial correlation of carbon emission efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration