This article is compiled based on the presentation delivered at the forum China’s Urbanization Pathways Under the Dual Carbon Goals: Cutting-Edge Reflections, one of the series of forums marking the 15th Anniversary of the PKU-Lincoln Center on November 5, 2022, and has been reviewed by Professor He Shenjing.
Speaker Profile
He Shenjing, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, the University of Hong Kong. Her core research interests include urban renewal and gentrification, urban governance, healthy cities, housing and socio-spatial segregation.
Abstract
This presentation interprets the dual carbon targets from an equity lens. Drawing on latest research findings, it unpacks disparities and equity issues under the dual carbon framework across four spatial scales: global North-South divides, inter-regional and inter-city gaps, intra-city inequalities, and urban-rural disparities. Combined with a social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) governance framework, the presentation introduces a rural revitalization pilot project in Hong Kong that adopts the European-originated living lab model. The initiative explores pathways to deeply integrate dual carbon objectives with technological progress, social justice and local culture, so as to jointly advance sustainable social development.
I. Disparities and Equity Under the Dual Carbon Goals
China rolled out its dual carbon targets in 2020, which represent not merely environmental commitments but also political imperatives that will profoundly shape national and global socioeconomic development. Corresponding policies and governance measures must therefore account for cross-group disparities and equity concerns. Under the principles established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, all countries bear common but differentiated responsibilities for global decarbonization, determined by their emission volumes and capacity to deliver mitigation solutions. Disparities mainly manifest across four scales:
Global North-South divide: High-emission industries relocate from developed to developing economies; developing nations face dual pressures of rapid urbanization and environmental sustainability. Regions differ drastically in resource endowments, industrial comparative advantages and economic development levels.
Inter-regional gaps: Uneven regional development is pervasive, with wide divergence across regions in climate change awareness and adaptive capacity.
Intra-city inequality: Socio-spatial stratification by income group is further exacerbated by climate response policies.
Urban-rural divide: Cities consume 60–80% of global energy and generate 70% of greenhouse gas emissions, while rural areas deliver critical ecological services yet suffer neglect of livelihood and developmental demands.
II. Equity Issues Across Multiple Scales
Scale 1: Global North-South Disparities and Inequity
A research team from the Futures Urban Sustainability & Environment (FUSE) Lab, Department of Future Cities, the University of Hong Kong, studied inequities in urban greenspace exposure between the Global North and Global South (Chen et al., 2022). The results show that greenspace access in Global South cities is only one-third of that in Global North cities. The Gini coefficient measuring greenspace exposure inequality reaches 0.47 in Southern cities, nearly twice the level of 0.27 in Northern counterparts. 22% of total greenspace inequality variance stems from uneven greenspace provision, while 53% arises from combined effects of supply quantity and spatial distribution. These findings highlight the priority of greening policies and optimized spatial layout in Southern cities to narrow environmental gaps and advance sustainable development goals.
Figure 1 Multi-Scale Heterogeneity in Human Greenspace Exposure Worldwide (Chen et al., 2022)
Scale 2: Inter-Regional Disparities and Inequity
Professor He Shenjing’s team collaborated with Professor Su Shiliang’s research group at Wuhan University to examine regional inequity from the perspective of landscape capitalization effects (Su et al., 2021). Using big data from online housing rental listings, the study quantifies how landscape amenities are capitalized into rental prices across five Chinese megacities: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Wuhan. It analyzes market supply, subjective perception and demand for green and blue landscapes including parks, gardens, green belts and water bodies. The emotional intensity attached to landscape amenities in rental advertisements ranks from highest to lowest as Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and Shenzhen. Divergent landscape capitalization coefficients across cities reflect varying public valuation and willingness-to-pay for green infrastructure, which indirectly reveals differentiated public awareness of dual carbon targets on the demand side.
Figure 2 Identified Thematic Clusters (Beijing as Example) (Su et al., 2021)
Scale 3: Intra-City Disparities and Inequity
Climate/environmental gentrification has emerged as a core research topic addressing inequalities at intra-city, regional and global scales. Extreme weather events such as storms, earthquakes and wildfires, alongside long-term trends including global warming and sea-level rise, exert increasingly profound impacts on urban development. Divergent social constructions and media narratives of climate crises across societies, regions and nations shape heterogeneous public perceptions, which further create gaps in public recognition and willingness-to-pay for green infrastructure and landscapes. Accordingly, urban planners and governments adopt divergent low-carbon, green and resilient planning interventions. Green real estate, climate-resilient property development and urban resilient infrastructure have expanded rapidly, yet these assets predominantly serve high-income groups. They drive property value appreciation and advance urban redevelopment that benefits privileged populations, while overlooking low-income households’ demands for affordable housing, accessible commuting, improved living standards and climate adaptation support. Such research has gained traction in Western countries across South America, yet remains underdeveloped in China.
Scale 4: Urban-Rural Disparities and Inequity
Based on critical reflections on longstanding binary urban-rural frameworks, Professor He Shenjing advocates re-examining rural-urban relations and rurality through planetary thinking (He & Zhang, 2022). The study reconceptualizes rural areas and explores their potential for inclusive, sustainable revitalization. More importantly, adopting a planetary lens, it highlights multiple coexistent pathways for harmonious human-nature coexistence. Moving beyond rigid definitions of urbanization or ruralization, this perspective centers on mutual interaction and integration between the two spheres. The research underscores the evolving, multi-dimensional nature of rural territories, arguing that rural zones function as critical buffers between human activities and natural environments under a non-urban-centric planetary framework, facilitating balanced human-nature relations. As ruralization and urbanization intertwine globally, the paper calls for strengthening rural communities’ agency in ecological civilization construction.
III. Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) Governance Framework and Practical Pilot
Cities operate through complex, interdependent social, ecological and technological systems that require coordinated governance mechanisms to function effectively (Krueger et al., 2022). The social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) governance framework captures urban systemic complexity, delivering inclusive solutions balancing equity and empowerment, ecological resilience and operational efficiency. It constitutes a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder, multi-objective governance toolkit applicable and nested across all spatial scales.
Figure 3 Governance Framework for Urban Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (Krueger et al., 2022)
Three-quarters of Hong Kong’s land remains undeveloped, a large share of which consists of rural countryside areas. Rural territories therefore form a critical testbed for Hong Kong’s dual carbon transition. Grounded in the SETS governance framework, Professor He and her team launched a research project titled Rural Hong Kong in Practice: The Low-Carbon Living Lab of Kuk Po. Drawing on the international living lab methodology, the project explores deep integration of dual carbon targets with technological innovation, social justice and indigenous local culture to drive inclusive sustainable development.
The core objective of the research is to explore urban-rural integration and coordinated multi-stakeholder, multi-objective governance. Three tiers of core demands are identified from different stakeholders:
Village residents’ demands for restored agricultural ecosystems and preservation of Hakka cultural heritage;
Urban residents’ demand for accessible green spaces and eco-tourism;
Hong Kong’s city-wide goals of carbon reduction and ecological conservation.
Originating from MIT and widely adopted across Europe, the living lab approach emphasizes openness, multi-disciplinary collaboration, and thematic focus on sustainable development, clean energy, social innovation and public health (UN-Habitat, World Cities Report 2022). Its core principles include multi-stakeholder participation, user-led innovation, open innovation ecosystems, real-life living contexts and co-creation processes. The proposed Kuk Po Low-Carbon Living Lab integrates traditional Hakka agri-ecological wisdom with modern smart technologies to advance SETS transition toward dual carbon goals. Four thematic labs centered on ecology, food, art and health will be constructed within the village’s authentic residential landscape, with joint research carried out alongside local villagers and volunteer participants.
Professor He’s team plans to transform the small village of Kuk Po into an education, innovation and knowledge exchange hub for low-carbon development, fostering a vibrant, engaged community. The project aims to attract villagers back to participate in social, ecological and educational activities, with a view to scaling up this SETS governance model across the Greater Bay Area and beyond.
IV. Outlook: Toward an Equitable, Inclusive Dual Carbon Transition
Professor He concluded that future research should embed dual carbon objectives within deeper, broader technological innovation, political economy and socio-cultural contexts, advancing inquiry along three dimensions:
Transition of social-ecological-technological systems: Move beyond binary social-nature and rural-urban divides to unpack mutually constitutive, interactive linkages between social, ecological and technological spheres;
Multi-disciplinary methodologies and perspectives: Integrate lenses of ecological civilization, socioeconomics, urban political ecology and social governance, combining remote sensing, big data, machine learning, urban sociology and anthropological tools;
Multi-dimensional, multi-scalar research: Conduct thematic investigations on dual carbon issues across global, regional, intra-city and urban-rural scales.
For updates on Professor He Shenjing and her team’s latest research outputs, please visit the website of the Social Infrastructure for Equity and Wellbeing (SIEW) Lab at the University of Hong Kong:
https://www.siewlab.hku.hk/References
Chen, B., Wu, S., Song, Y., Webster, C., Xu, B., & Gong, P. (2022). Contrasting Inequality in Human Exposure to Greenspace between Cities of Global North and Global South.
Nature Communications, 13(1), 4636.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32258-4He, S., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Reconceptualising the Rural through Planetary Thinking: A Field Experiment of Sustainable Approaches to Rural Revitalisation in China.
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.10.008Krueger, E. H., Constantino, S. M., Centeno, M. A., Elmqvist, T., Weber, E. U., & Levin, S. A. (2022). Governing Sustainable Transformations of Urban Social-Ecological-Technological Systems.
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-022-00053-1Su, S., He, S., Sun, C., Zhang, H., Hu, L., & Kang, M. (2021). Do Landscape Amenities Impact Private Housing Rental Prices? A Hierarchical Hedonic Modeling Approach Based on Semantic and Sentimental Analysis of Online Housing Advertisements across Five Chinese Megacities.
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 58, 126968.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126968Compiled by: He Dejie
