Spatiotemporal pattern of carbon productivity and carbon offset potential in Chinese counties

This study used panel data for 2166 county-level units in China between 2000 and 2017 to characterize carbon productivity's temporal and spatial evolution in Chinese counties. The “catch-up effect” of carbon offsets between counties was examined, and this was used to measure the carbon offset potential and analyze its spatial differences. The results indicated that: (1) China's carbon productivity increased from 2000 to 2017; carbon productivity in eastern China was the highest, and carbon productivity in northeast China was the lowest. A polarization to unipolarization evolutionary trend was evident. (2) Considering the spatial differences in carbon productivity, the overall difference in carbon productivity in China from 2000 to 2017 first decreased and then increased; the contribution rate of differences between cities and counties to the overall difference was relatively stable, at around 39.88 %. The contribution rate of the differences between zones to the overall difference was the lowest, remaining stable at around 2.49 %. (3) In terms of the spatial distribution of the carbon offset potential, the eastern region exhibited the highest average carbon offset potential. The carbon offset potential of China exhibited a “high in the north and low in the south; low in the west and high in the east” spatial pattern.