<p>With the accelerated pace of industrialization, energy demand continues to increase, exacerbating the contradictions between economic development and environmental protection. Rising carbon emissions have posed serious challenges to ecosystems. Achieving coordinated development among energy, economy, environment, and carbon emissions is therefore essential for regional sustainable development. Accordingly, this study investigates the coordinated development within the regional energy-economy-environment-carbon (EEEC) coupling system. Firstly, this research integrates energy consumption, economic industrial structure, ecological environmental quality, and carbon emission levels into a unified analytical framework, thereby developing an EEEC coupling system. Secondly, a coupling coordination model is employed to quantitatively assess the level of coordinated development within the regional EEEC system. Then, an optimization model aiming at maximizing the coupling coordination degree is established. This model comprehensively considers multiple constraints, such as economic and energy factors, facilitating the optimization of industrial structures and exploration of sustainable development pathways. Lastly, the developed model is empirically applied to Southwest China to verify its effectiveness. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) Energy carbon emissions in the Southwest region show an overall upward trend. Electricity is the largest contributor to energy carbon emissions in the region, followed by raw coal, with carbon emission volumes of 76100.59 (<InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">\({10^8}kgC{O_2}eq\)</EquationSource> </InlineEquation>) and 31942.16 (<InlineEquation ID="IEq2"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">\({10^8}kgC{O_2}eq\)</EquationSource> </InlineEquation>), respectively. (2) The coupling coordination degree of the Energy-Economy-Environment-Carbon system presents a gradually rising trend. In 2022, the coupling coordination degree across various regions was approximately 0.7; however, it remains in the intermediate coordination stage, indicating that the overall synergy level of the system still has room for further optimization. (3) Industry still holds a relatively large proportion in the industrial structure of various regions. The structures of agriculture, the construction industry, and other industries have improved, with average increases of 0.08%, 0.12%, and 9.88%, respectively.</p>

Research on the coordinated development of regional energy-economy-environment-carbon coupling systems

期刊论文
发表日期：

2026年1月28日

查看全文

Yang Wei,
Han Zhang,
Yumin Chen,
Zhengwei Chang,
Jie Zhang

摘要

With the accelerated pace of industrialization, energy demand continues to increase, exacerbating the contradictions between economic development and environmental protection. Rising carbon emissions have posed serious challenges to ecosystems. Achieving coordinated development among energy, economy, environment, and carbon emissions is therefore essential for regional sustainable development. Accordingly, this study investigates the coordinated development within the regional energy-economy-environment-carbon (EEEC) coupling system. Firstly, this research integrates energy consumption, economic industrial structure, ecological environmental quality, and carbon emission levels into a unified analytical framework, thereby developing an EEEC coupling system. Secondly, a coupling coordination model is employed to quantitatively assess the level of coordinated development within the regional EEEC system. Then, an optimization model aiming at maximizing the coupling coordination degree is established. This model comprehensively considers multiple constraints, such as economic and energy factors, facilitating the optimization of industrial structures and exploration of sustainable development pathways. Lastly, the developed model is empirically applied to Southwest China to verify its effectiveness. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) Energy carbon emissions in the Southwest region show an overall upward trend. Electricity is the largest contributor to energy carbon emissions in the region, followed by raw coal, with carbon emission volumes of 76100.59 ( \({10^8}kgC{O_2}eq\) ) and 31942.16 ( \({10^8}kgC{O_2}eq\) ), respectively. (2) The coupling coordination degree of the Energy-Economy-Environment-Carbon system presents a gradually rising trend. In 2022, the coupling coordination degree across various regions was approximately 0.7; however, it remains in the intermediate coordination stage, indicating that the overall synergy level of the system still has room for further optimization. (3) Industry still holds a relatively large proportion in the industrial structure of various regions. The structures of agriculture, the construction industry, and other industries have improved, with average increases of 0.08%, 0.12%, and 9.88%, respectively.