The Spatiotemporal Evolution of Carbon Emissions in the Chengdu Chongqing Region: An Empirical Study Based on County Scale

County is a key spatial unit for achieving emission reduction and carbon control. Studying and revealing the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of carbon emissions in counties is of great significance for achieving the “dual carbon” goal. This article is based on carbon emission data from 147 districts and counties in the Chengdu Chongqing region from 2007 to 2017, and uses coefficient of variation and spatial autocorrelation analysis methods to study the spatiotemporal pattern of carbon emissions in counties in the Chengdu Chongqing region. The results show that: (1) the total carbon emissions of each district and county in the Chengdu Chongqing region show a rapid growth to a stable trend; (2) The coefficient of variation indicates that the gap between counties in the Chengdu Chongqing region is gradually narrowing; (3) County carbon emissions have significant spatial correlation, and the Moran's I index of global county carbon emissions shows a fluctuating upward trend. The Chengdu Chongqing region as a whole shows a relatively obvious phenomenon of hierarchical agglomeration, and the county level carbon emissions have a high spatial dependence pattern in local areas. Most high (low) carbon emitting counties are adjacent to high (low) carbon emitting counties, but the spatial distribution of carbon emissions has not changed significantly. This study to some extent reveals the evolutionary characteristics of carbon emissions in counties in the Chengdu Chongqing region, which helps to optimize the spatial implementation path of the “dual carbon” goal in the Chengdu Chongqing region.