An integrated zero-sum game and data envelopment analysis model for efficiency analysis and regional carbon emission allocation

Abstract

As the global economic environment changes, the concept of green and sustainable development has become the international community’s consensus. As a participant in the worldwide emission reduction plan, China is also under great pressure to reduce carbon emissions. As an example, this study constructs an optimal scheme for regional carbon emission allowance allocation in Hunan Province, China. We first forecast the total carbon emissions in 2030 for each city, state, and major industry in Hunan Province through a scenario and then innovatively use the mass function allocation theory in marketing to sort out the logical ideas of the optimization model. More importantly, we combine the zero-sum game theory to build the zero-sum game-data envelopment analysis model to continuously reallocate the carbon emission allowances of each city and state and major industries in Hunan Province until the optimal allocation scheme is reached. From the perspective of each city and state, the initial carbon emission efficiency level of fourteen cities in Hunan is high, but there are still some differences. From the perspective of industries, the initial efficiency of carbon emission of six major industries in Hunan is lower, and the difference in efficiency values is evident.