Planning Economy-energy-environment Nexus System: A Case Study of Pearl River Delta, China

The rapid economic growth has led to resource shortages and environmental degradation, restricting global sustainable development. In this study, an economy-energy-environment nexus (EEEN) optimization model is established, which is capable of coordinating the interests of cities and urban agglomerations and balancing the trade-offs among economic growth, energy consumption and environmental emission. The model is then applied to planning Pearl River Delta (PRD) urban agglomeration's EEEN system during 2021-2035. Three scenarios associated with different GDP growth rates are analyzed. Major findings are: (i) the growth rate of energy consumption and environmental emissions would be lower than that of the economy aggregate, indicating that the economy is gradually decoupled from energy and the environment; (ii) high GDP growth rates would promote the upgrading of industry structure and the share of tertiary industry would increase from 64.61% to 65.86% by 2035; (iii) wholesale and retail transportation and warehousing (WRT) industry would still be the major energy user and VOCs and CO2 emitter, which implicates that WRT has huge potential for energy conservation and emission reduction.