The nonlinear impacts of global warming on regional economic production: An empirical analysis from China

China, the second largest economy in the world, covers a large area spanning multiple climate zones, with varying economic conditions across regions. Given this variety in climate and economic conditions, global warming is expected to have heterogeneous economic impacts across the country. This study uses annual average temperature to conduct an empirical research from a top-down perspective to evaluate the nonlinear impacts of temperature change on aggregate economic output in China. We find that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between temperature and economic growth at the provincial level, with a turning point at 12.28C. The regional and national economic impacts are projected under the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and representative concentration pathways (RCPs). As future temperature rises, the economic impacts are positive in the northeast, north, and northwest regions but negative in the south, east, central, and southwest regions. Based on SSP5, the decrement in the GDP per capita of China would reach 16.0% under RCP2.6 and 27.0% under RCP8.5.