Dual perspective diagnosis on low carbon city performance

Developing low-carbon cities (LCC) is a strategic measure to mitigate climate change. This study proposes to diagnose LCC performance from a dual perspective in order to identify problematic areas for improvement. The dual perspective refers to management processes (including Plan, Do, Check, and Act) and low carbon city performance dimensions (namely, energy structure, economic development, produc-tion efficiency, urban population, water carbon sink, forest carbon sink, green space carbon sink, and low carbon technology). A diagnosis model has been introduced based on the dimension-process dual perspective. The model has been applied for diagnosing the LCC performance in four municipalities in China. It has been found that the performance in the economic development dimension is much better than in other LCC dimensions, and the performance in Plan and Do stages are better than that in other stages. This reflects the traditional practice in China where more attention and resources are often given to urban planning and implementation with less attention to checks and feedback. The findings from this study provide impor-tant references for both further research in the discipline and practical application in promoting LCC in other cities.