Determinants of net primary productivity: Low-carbon development from the perspective of carbon sequestration

Abstract Net primary productivity, which reflects vegetation's carbon sequestration capacity, should not be ignored in the process of low-carbon development. To explore the paths of achieving low-carbon development goals from the perspective of carbon sequestration, this study takes net primary productivity as the study object and uses the logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition model to analyze the influences of urbanization and land utilization change on net primary productivity in China. The results show that urbanization is the driving factor of the net primary productivity increase, and land utilization change is the main determinant of its decrease. This study argues that making reasonable land utilization planning is essential to reduce the net primary productivity loss caused by land utilization changes in the process of urbanization.