Assessment of the Sustainability of the Resource-Based Province Shanxi, China Using Emergy Analysis

Abstract

According to the BP Statistical Yearbook of World Energy, China’s coal production and consumption have ranked first in the world in recent years. Shanxi, a central China province, plays an important role in China’s energy supply because of its large coal reserves, long mining history, and high output. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sustainability of the eco-economic system in Shanxi Province, a typical resource-based region. Through emergy analysis, this study quantified the sustainable development of the eco-economic system in Shanxi Province from 2013 to 2020 from five dimensions: basic emergy quantity, social subsystem, economic subsystem, environmental subsystem, and capacity for sustainable development. The results show that Shanxi Province has made great progress in recent years in terms of the emergy value of renewable resources, per capita emergy consumption, and electricity emergy ratio, but the proportion of nonrenewable emergy is still large, the intensity of emergy is high, and the exchange rate of emergy is low. Lastly, the sustainable development indicators ESI and EISD reflect that Shanxi Province is gradually improving the utilization efficiency of resources, and Shanxi Province has achieved certain results after experiencing transition pains. This study, combined with the actual situation of Shanxi Province and the problems found, puts forward corresponding countermeasures. The analysis method used in this study provides a theoretical basis for the scientific evaluation of the sustainable development of a resource-based region, and the research results have profound practical significance for improving the quality of Shanxi’s economic development and helping Shanxi’s economic transformation.