Industrial Restructuring through Eco-Transformation: Green Industrial Transfer in Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan, Hunan Province

As industrial activities account for a large part of environmental degradation and carbon emissions in China, the geographic location of industries significantly shapes the environmental performance and quality of life of surrounding areas. Since the late-2000s, China has sought to combat environmental degradation through the relocation of polluting industries particularly from industrial areas within inner cities. Using the concept of industrial transfer, which has been used in the Chinese context to capture not only the relocation of, but also structural and procedural changes to, firms, the paper analyses recent changes to China’s industrial structure. These occurred during the so-called eco-transformation, which seeks to improve China’s environmental performance. The paper expands the concept of industrial transfer by focusing on the intra-regional processes of this wider policy-led eco-transformation process based on the case studies of three traditional industrial areas in Hunan province. Case study results suggest that the ongoing phase of industrial transfer differs from previous regional transfers as it considers environmental impacts, elevates the relevance of the urban and local scale, involves new actor groups and offers benefits to both original and new locations.