Evaluation of synergy between low-carbon development and socio-economic development based on a composite system: a case study of Anhui Province (China)

Low-carbon development has been the favorite subject with the aim of making a synergy environment. Extensive research on low-carbon development and socio-economic synergy has been conducted by scholars from different perspectives. This paper explores the synergy between low-carbon development and socio-economic development as a composite system from four levels: resource, energy, economy and society, and improves the theory of low-carbon economic development in a "dual-carbon" perspective. Meanwhile, based on the theoretical research, this paper constructs a synergy model and evaluation index system of low-carbon development and socio-economic development, and conducts an empirical analysis by combining the relevant data of low-carbon governance and socio-economic development in Anhui Province from 2011 to 2020. After obtaining the level of synergistic development and constraints of the composite system, the trend of changes in the level of synergy of the composite system is verified by R/S model. It is found that: (1) the composite system composed of low-carbon development and socio-economic development in Anhui Province has certain synergistic effects, and the level of synergistic development is increasing; (2) the studied time series has significant correlation over a long period of time, while it will continue the past development trend. The contribution of this paper is to take the synergy model as the basis and build the R/S model to extend the time cycle of synergy level, which extends the previous theoretical research system of low-carbon development, helps to deepen the theoretical understanding of the synergy between low-carbon development and socio-economic development, and improves the discussion on building ecological civilization and helping to achieve the goal of "dual-carbon".