China’s Green Total Factor Energy Efficiency Assessment Based on Coordinated Reduction in Pollution and Carbon Emission: From the 11th to the 13th Five-Year Plan

Abstract

As the world’s largest energy consumer, China is facing multiple pressures to conserve energy, mitigate pollution and reduce carbon emissions. An objective and scientific assessment of green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) is an important prerequisite for achieving energy conservation, emission reduction and low carbon development. In this research, a non-radial data envelopment analysis (DEA) is conducted to assess the GTFEE in China, while the issue of climate and air pollution from energy use is considered in the assessment system. We use different indicators to refer to air pollutants, which provides a reference for related research in indicator selection. The results show that different indicators have different inefficiency values, but changes in the indicators have a minimal effect on the inefficiency values of the other constant indicators. We also assess the GTFEE for the last three five-year plan periods to inform future policy development. The results show that China’s average annual GTFEE exhibits a unique trend in each five-year plan period, with an overall “v” shaped trend. The annual average GTFEE of different regions also varies. The other changes in the rankings of the provinces are mainly concentrated in the 11th to 12th Five-Year Plan period.