A Hierarchical SBM-Tobit Approach for Examining the Influencing Factors of Industrial CO2 Emission Efficiency in the Yangtze River Delta

Abstract

As the most developed region, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) has been one of the largest CO2 emitters in China. Chinese Government has proposed the concept of YRD urban agglomeration to improve its competitiveness. To this end, we evaluate industrial CO2 emission efficiency (ICEE) of 26 cities in YRD and its space-time distribution during 2006-2015 by applying SBM-undesirable model and the method of GIS visualisation respectively. Moreover, we used Tobit model to study factors influencing ICEE. The results are as follows: 1) ICEE of YRD increases in fluctuation during our study period; 2) there is a spatial cluster in the distribution of ICEE; 3) the proportion of industrial research and development funds to regional GDP (R&D), population size (PS) and the degree of opening up to the outside world (OPEN) positively influence the ICEE, while industrial energy structure (IES) and the actual use of foreign direct investment (FDI) negatively do.