Potential and Barriers for Eco-industrial Parks to Pioneer the Sustainable Low-carbon Urban Development in China

Thanks to the specially designed preferential policy, streamlined government apparatus, better urban master development and land use planning, and more advanced infrastructure, a number of national eco-industrial parks have brought about rapid real estate development and become sustainable new towns in China. Based on three case studies on national eco-industrial parks in Beijing Municipality, Suzhou City and Tianjin Municipality, the paper aims at exploring: 1) the advanced features and performance in energy and resource productivity and greenhouse gas emissions of the case study eco-industrial parks as compared to their home cities; 2) major drivers of such pioneering low-carbon urban development patterns; and 3) barriers towards replicating similar sustainable urbanization practices and superior performance in other industrial parks in China. By adopting the policy learning framework, the paper shows that the three eco-industrial parks in question have served as the incubators of green building, mobility, manufacturing and service industry and thus can play a vital catalyst role in expediting and replicating low-carbon urban development in China.