The origin and connotation of low carbon city: A conceptual framework

Firstly, this paper analyzes the origin of low carbon city and find that low carbon economy and low carbon society have been put forward from the viewpoint of global action and national level, low carbon city is space carrier of low carbon idea and new practice of low carbon economy and low carbon society. Based on the analysis of the literature, the article point out that the current research of low carbon city concept mainly focus on three aspects: low carbon energy and low carbon idea, low carbon governance and low carbon planning, low carbon production and low carbon consumption. Then the concept of low carbon city was defined. According to the concept of low carbon city, the connotation of low carbon city focus on four aspects: In the time context, low carbon city is new practice in the process of converting from industrial civilization to ecological civilization; In the space scale, low carbon city is urban space response under the background of global low carbon action; Low carbon city construction is a process of socialization and systematic; technology innovation and institutional innovation are two supports of the low carbon city.