Synthetic Evaluation of China’s Regional Low-Carbon Economy Challenges by Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response Model

The “driver–pressure–state–impact–response” (DPSIR) model has recently become a popular approach to deal with environmental problems. The combination of DPSIR with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a useful method to study low-carbon evaluation because the AHP model has a special advantage in multi-indexes evaluation. This paper constructs the low-carbon economy evaluation system and comprehensively evaluates the numerical value of low-carbon economic development of China’s 30 regions from 2000 to 2015 by using the AHP method. It shows that the numerical value of low-carbon economy of China’s 30 regions varies in terms of growth rate. The numerical value of east regional low-carbon economy shows a pattern that is gradually higher than that of the west region. The numerical value of low carbon economic development in the south region is higher than that of the north region by degrees. In addition, based on the model of coordination degree in 2015, the result indicated that the four subsystems have primary coordination in the east area and bare coordination in the central and west areas. It is indicated that the four sub-indexes should be developed at the same pace and promoting the development of a low-carbon economy in the mid-west areas is the key in China. Finally, we proposed that environmental regulations and policies should be formulated to improve coordination in various aspects and various departments. Calculating the degree of low-carbon economic coupling coordination may be helpful for policy makers to formulate effective policies and take actions in the future.