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What is Low-Carbon Development? A

Conceptual Analysis

Article in Energy Procedia · December 2011

DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2011.03.290

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Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 1706–1712


IACEED2010

What is Low-Carbon Development? A Conceptual Analysis

Hu Yuana,b* , Peng Zhoua,b, Dequn Zhoua,b
a
College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
b
Research center forEnergy soft economics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

Abstract:

Low-carbon development has recently attracted attention from various countries and researchers, which may give
different interpretations on the concept. This paper p rovides a theoretical and conceptual analysis of various
low-carbon related concepts. We first divide low-carbon development into three different stages through which the
key concepts pertaining to each stage are identified. Then we provide a systematic comparison of six key concepts
including low-carbon development, low-carbon economy, low-carbon society, low-carbon city, low-carbon
community and low-carbon life. The similarities and differences among the six concepts have been finally
summarized.
© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of RIUDS
Kewords: low-carbon development, low-carbon economy, low-carbon society, conceptual analysis;

1. Introduction

There has been a growing concern about global climate change mainly arising fro m energy-related
carbon dio xide (CO2) emissions. To effectively reduce CO2 emissions while keep econo mic growth,
different countries have begun to search for new development paths among which low-carbon
development has become a widely advocated one. But what is low-carbon development? Different
countries/organizations may give their different interpretations. In literature, there has appeared a number
of concepts relevant to low-carbon development, e.g. low-carbon energy, low-carbon life, low-carbon
society, low-carbon city, low-carbon commun ity, low-carbon tourism, low-carbon world. These concepts
are linked to each other but have also some fundamental differences, but there is a lack o f a co mparison
among them. It is the purpose of this study to carry out a systematic analysis of various concepts relevant
to low-carbon development, wh ich would not only highlight their relationships but provide a theoretical
foundation on the research of low-carbon development.

*Corresponding author. T el.: +86 15380763797 .

E-mail address: .chilamrain@126.com

1876–6102 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2011.03.290
 Hu Yuan et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 1706–1712 1707

2. Three phases of low-carbon development

By summarizing and consolidating various low-carbon related concepts from literature, we p roduce
the following three stage figure of low-carbon development (see Figure 1).
Maturity stage
Achieving the low-carbon of
economy, politics, culture
Developmental stage and life all over the world.
Achieving the low-carbon of
economy, politics and
culture in a country:
Low-carbon community,
Primary stage Low-carbon life,
Achieving the low-carbon Low-carbon city, Low-carbon technology
economy in a country: Ă
Low-carbon industry, M easuring tools of carbon:
Low-carbon tourism, Low-carbon energy Carbon footprint, carbon
Green recovery, label, carbon
Ă certification Ă

Low-carbon economy Low-carbon society Low-carbon world

Figure 1. T hree phases of low-carbon development

As shown in Figure 1, we may d ivide low-carbon development into three phases, including lo w-carbon
economy, low-carbon society and low-carbon world. Low-carbon economy is the early phase of
low-carbon development, during which reducing CO2 emissions in economic development is the main
target. To achieve this goal, a country needs to formu late a clear p lan to pro mote low carbonization in its
economic development. The plan includes the R&D of low-carbon technology through financial, tax and
legal support finance, the development and usage of low-carbon energy, and the adjustment of economic
structure towards lo w-carbon industry. Low-carbon touris m and lo w-carbon industry are indivisible
components of low-carbon economy. Green recovery is a set of established policies and measures aiming
to build a lo w-carbon economy. When the stage of lo w-carbon economy is co mpleted, lo w-carbon
development enters the second phase, i.e. low-carbon society, which includes low-carbon life, lo w-carbon
culture, low-carbon polit ics, etc. In this stage, government should try to pro mote low-carbon life styles
and consumption patterns such as encouraging people to choose low-carbon transport mode. Once a city
achieves low-carbon in all aspects including economy, daily life, polit ics and culture, it can be defined as
a low-carbon city. Low-carbon community is an epitome of lo w-carbon city. In the same way, a society
will beco me a low-carbon society when its economy, daily life, and cu lture have achieved low -carbon.
After most countries in the world have become low-carbon societies, low-carbon development becomes
matured and the stage “low-carbon world” has started. In the process of low-carbon development, we
need many instruments to track the performance of development. The concepts such as carbon footprint,
carbon label and carbon certification can serve the purpose well. Carbon footprint is the total CO2
emissions caused by an organization, a product or a person. Carbon label and carbon certification are an
integrated system used to measure and display the CO2 emissions of a product or a kind of service during
its whole lifecycle.
1708 Hu Yuan et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 1706–1712

3. Comparison of six key concepts

Through the three-phase analysis of low-carbon development described in Section 2, we find that there
are six key lo w-carbon related concepts, i.e. low-carbon development, low-carbon economy, lo w-carbon
society, low-carbon city, low-carbon commun ity and lo w-carbon life. Table 1 shows a description of
different sources of the six concepts.

T able 1. An overview of six low-carbon related concept

Concepts Country/Organization Sources

Low-carbon Europe EREC(2008) , UK DFID(2009), Islam(2010)
development China Energy Research Institute of NDRC(2009)
World Bank Ebinger (2009)
Singapore Low-carbon Singapore website(2010)
Guyana Office of the President(2010)
Low-carbon EU UK DT I(2003), Associated Press(2007), The Guardian(2008), Germany BMZ(2009),
economy Cranston and Hammond(2010)
USA Chandler(2009), Hughes(2009)
Australia T he Australia Government(2010)
China Zhuang(2005), Wu(2008), Xia(2008), Zhang(2008), Feng(2009)
REEEP REEEP(2007)
IPCC Wikipedia(2010)
Low-carbon Japan Ministry of the Environment(2007)
society UK and Japan Skea and Nishioka(2008)
Finland Office of the Prime Minister(2009)
Low-carbon UK Raven et al.(2008), Heiskanen et al.(2009), Middlemiss and D. Parrish(2009)
community Australia Moloney et al.(2009)
Japan Ministry of the Environment(2010)
Low-carbon China Luo(2008), Xia(2008)
city Japan Shan’tian(2009)
Low-carbon Singapore Low-carbon Singapore website(2010)
life China Baidupedia(2010)

3.1. Low-carbon development

Various countries/organizations may give different interpretations of the concept “low-carbon

development”. EREC (2008) defines it as substituting fossil fuels by low-carbon energy based on the
assurance of economy growth and rising the residential welfare[1]. In 2009, UK DFID point s out that a
common feature of lo w-carbon develop ment in different countries is utilizing less carbon to promote
economic g rowth in the future(Mulugetta and Urban, 2010)[2]. Islam(2010) considers the low-carbon
development in Europe and Asia as reducing CO2 emissions as much as possible and ensuring the
economic growth at the same time[3].
In the “China’s Low-carbon Develop ment Path to 2050” report, the Energy Research Institute of China
National Development and Reform Co mmission point out that the essence of low-carbon development is
the development of social economic system which can realize low carbon emissions[4]. Ebinger (2009)[5]
declares that the emission reduction potentials in energy efficiency, consumers’ management, power
generation fro m renewable energy, lo w-carbon transport are the main areas focused on by the World
Bank. The “lo w-carbon Singapore community” states that the three main features of their imagined
low-carbon Singapore are the use of more clean energy and the improvement energy efficiency, the
 Hu Yuan et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 1706–1712 1709

reduction of carbon footprint through technological and policy innovation, and becoming the leader of
low-carbon development and help ing developing countries to cope with climate change[6]. So me
developing countries such as Guyana want to get more growing opportunities in low-carbon development.
Guyana’s low-carbon development means investing in infrastructure of low-carbon economy, increas ing
input of the capital and hu man resources to low-carbon economy sectors, realizing sustainable
development of forestry-based economic sectors, and improving human capital[7].
Despite the discrepancies among different understandings , there is a co mmon point on lo w-carbon
development: reducing GHG emissions, exploiting low-carbon energy, and ensuring economic growth.

3.2. Low-carbon economy

Low-carbon economy is now the most widely accepted development pattern of an economy. In 2003,
the UK government first proposed the concept in its Energy White Paper as gaining mo re econo mic
output by less consumption of nature resources and less environmental pollution[8].
Associated Press (2007)[9] and The Guard ian (2008)[10] exp lained in their art icles that EU’s
low-carbon economy is to reduce CO2 emissions, decrease the usage of traditional fossil energy, and
increase the use of renewable energy according to their targets. As an important member o f EU, Germany
states in “Policy Dialogues with Emerging Economies on a Low-Carbon Economy” that low-carbon
economy aims to coordinate the economic growth with costly climate protection[11]. In addit ion,
Cranston and Hammond (2010) concludes that low-carbon economy in the 21st century means balancing
and harmonizing population growth, economy development and environmental protection[12]. Hughes
and Chandler, two US researchers, pointed out that the core of low-carbon economy is to reduce CO2
emissions as much as possible under the economic permissions (Mao, 2009)[13]. In the Australia’s
Action on Climate Change, the development of a low-carbon economy mainly includes reducing CO2
emission, promoting usage of renewable energy, strengthening R&D of clean energy and CCS technology,
and driving all residents, companies and co mmunit ies to move towards reducing CO2 emissions[14]. The
2007 report released by the REEEP says that low-carbon economy is a development path with the
purpose of realizing g lobal econo mic growth wh ile restrict ing the increase of energy demand, driv ing the
manufacture of low-carbon products, and providing enough and safe energy supply simultaneously[15].
China has also paid much attention on low-carbon development. Zhuang (2005) considers low-carbon
economy as reducing CO2 emissions as much as possible through technology innovation and system
innovation while ensuring normal economic growth[8]. The viewpoint given in Zhang (2008)[16] is that
low-carbon economy is a bridge linking regional pollut ion control, climate change mitigation and
sustainable development. The kernel of low-carbon economy is to emphasize the econo mic growth mode
of lo w consumption, low emissions, and high output. Moreover, Feng and Niu(2009)[ 17] point out that
low-carbon economy is a generic term o f low-carbon industry, low-carbon technology, and lo w-carbon
life, etc. Its essence is to improve energy efficiency, p ro mote regional clean development, encourage
low-carbon development of productions, and maintain the ecological balance of the world.
Although there was not a common definit ion for low-carbon economy, several similarities have been
found fro m the interpretations described above. The main characters of lo w-carbon economy are low
energy consumption, low pollut ion and lo w emissions. Low-carbon economy cannot move fo rward
without innovations in energy field. Finally, the final goal of low-carbon economy is to achieve
sustainable development.

3.3. Low-carbon society

1710 Hu Yuan et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 1706–1712

Low-carbon society is the concept which has often been cited by countries such as Japan. A ccording to
Japan’s report “Building a Low-Carbon Society”, a low-carbon society is required to follow three
principles, namely min imizing all the sectors’ emissions, pursuing a simple life style with higher quality
and getting well along with the nature[18]. Skea and Nishioka(2008)[19] conclude that a lo w-carbon
society should carry out the actions consistent with principles of sustainable development, ensure all the
social crowds’ develop ment demand can be satisfied, contribute to reducing GHG emissions in the course
of preventing the disasters from happening caused by the climate change, get high energy efficiency and
use low-carbon energy and low-carbon manufacturing technologies, and adopt lo w-carbon liv ing and
consumption styles. In its “The Govern ment Fo resight Report on Climate and Energy Policy ” report,
Fin land states that a low-carbon society is a society in which global climate protection and CO2
emissions reduction (even zero emissions) have been achieved [20].
Based on the different understandings and Fig. 1, we may draw the conclusion that low-carbon society
requires the low-carbonization of not only economic development but different aspects of a society such
as life and culture.

3.4. Low-carbon community

Low-carbon community is a popular concept in the UK. Raven et al. (2008) describe low-carbon
community as a form of organization, in wh ich everyone acts as a citizen rather than a consumer, the
citizens would working hard for upgrading the community’s energy infrastructure under the condition of
the local economic development level[ 21]. Heiskanen et al.(2009)[22] reco mmend four kinds of
low-carbon commun ities, namely “Urban commun ity” represented by the “Manchester is My Planet”,
“Sector co mmunity” represented by the “Green Office”, “Interest co mmunity” represented by the
“Carbonariu m”, and “Smart mob co mmunity” represented by the “Carrot mob”. According to M iddlemiss
and D. Parrish (2009), although there are still some debates about the exact defin ition of lo w-carbon
community, the certain thing is that the future CO2 emissions in low-carbon commun ities of high income
countries will be cut down sharply[23]. More recently, M ETI(2010)[24] proposes the “smart co mmunity”
concept and defines it as “a whole-city task-solution system that copes with worldwide problems, and to
promote technological development, standardization, and reform o f the social systems in order to realize
the system”.
Generally speaking, lo w-carbon co mmunity is an epito me of low-carbon city. If all the communities
have become low-carbon ones in a city, the city will certainly become a low-carbon city.

3.5. Low-carbon city

According to China’s Baidupedia, lo w-carbon city refers to a city in which low-carbon economic
development pattern is adopted, cit izens prefer to lo w-carbon life styles, and the government considers
low-carbon society as their blue print[25]. Recently, Ch ina launched a large-scale campaign of building
low-carbon cities. In January 2008, the World Wildlife Foundation started the “China’s low-carbon city
development programme”, in which Shanghai and Baoding were selected as the first batch of pilot cit ies.
In August 2010, the Ch ina Nat ional Develop ment and Reform Co mmission init iated the project of pilot
low-carbon provinces and low-carbon cities. The five provinces and eight cit ies involved need to make
their lo w-carbon development plan. Luo (2008)[25] and Xia(2008)[16] indicate that low-carbon city
refers to a city wh ich can keep lo w-carbon manufacturing and consumption, construct a resource-saving
and environment-friendly society, and achieve a well sustainable energy ecological system.
Japan has actively promoted low-carbon city’s construction in the process of building a low-carbon
society. Shan’tian (2009) introduces the efforts made by M inamata city and Yokohama city in building
 Hu Yuan et al. / Energy Procedia 5 (2011) 1706–1712 1711

environmental model city[26]. In addit ion, Toyama city has taken lots of measures to realize its CO2
emission reduction target and to become a low-carbon city.

3.6. Low-carbon life

China’s Baidupedia considers low-carbon life as “decreasing energy demand in our daily life in order
to reduce CO2 emissions”[27]. The concept of “low-carbon life” can often be seen in the speeches by
governmental leaders fro m various countries. It is an indispensible part of low-carbon development.
Many countries/regions in the world has implemented a great deal of policies to boost low-carbon life,
including Europe, USA, Australia, Singapore, Japan , and so on. Ch ina also acts positively to push
low-carbon life in the country. For examp le, during the period of World Expo 2010 Shanghai, Ch inese
government spreads the low-carbon transport and advocates the low-carbon consumption patterns.

4. Summary

Low-carbon development related concepts have been widely advocated, but there is a lack of an
in-depth examination of the similarit ies and differences among them. This paper fills in this gap by
providing a conceptual analysis of low-carbon development. Generally speaking, lo w-carbon
development is a new pattern of political and economic develop ment aiming at reducing CO2 emissions
and achieving the sustainable development of environment, economy, and society. Low-carbon economy
refers to a new economic form with the goal of improving energy efficiency, enforcing regional clean
development, reducing CO2 emissions and holding the global ecological balance . Low-carbon society,
which is an advanced stage of low-carbon economy, stands for the low-carbonization in all aspects of a
society including economy, culture and life. Lo w-carbon city means a city where the lo w-carbonization of
all the different aspects have been realized. As an epitome of low-carbon city, lo w-carbon community is
an integral co mponent of lo w-carbon city. Low-carbon life main ly aims to save energy use in our daily
life for the purpose of reducing CO2 emissions.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Nos. 71041008), the Major Program of Nat ional Social Science Foundation of China (No.
08&ZD046), the Jiangsu Qing Lan Project, and the Open-end Fund of NUAA Graduate Students’
Innovation Base (Nos. 201001020).

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