Abstract
Energy consumption is an important source of the emissions of CO2 and air pollutants such as SO2 and NOX. Reducing energy consumption can realize the simultaneous reduction of air pollutants and CO2 emissions to a certain extent. This study examines the collaborative allocation of energy consumption and the emissions of SO2, NOX and CO2 in China. In contrast to previous studies, this paper proposes an improved centralized DEA model that takes into account the correlation between energy consumption and air environmental emissions, the economic development demand and the energy resource endowment of different provinces. The initial allocation scheme is obtained based on the principle of equity. Then, the initial allocation results are brought into the improved centralized DEA model to maximize the expected output. The empirical analysis of projected data for 2025 shows that the looser the restrictions of energy consumption, the greater the optimal economic output. When the energy consumption of each province is allowed to fluctuate within the range of 85% to 115% of the initial quota, the total GDP is the largest and 20.62% higher than the initial GDP. The optimal allocation scheme is more equitable than the initial scheme and realizes absolute interpersonal equity and economic equity. Eighteen provinces bear the pressures of energy saving, emission reduction or GDP growth, with average pressure indexes of 11.46%, 16.85% and 40.62%, respectively. The pressures on the major regions involved in the “Belt and Road”, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Yangtze River Economic Belt national strategies will thus be reduced significantly; the maximum pressures on energy saving, emission reduction and GDP growth are 10.03%, 12.17% and 29.84%, respectively. China can take a series of measures to promote regional coordinated development and improve the realization of optimal allocation schemes, including establishing unified resource asset trading platforms, improving the methods of regional cooperation, building effective transportation and logistics transport networks to weaken the barriers among regions and implementing differentiated regional policies and regional interest coordination mechanisms.
Highlights
Introduction iationsEnergy consumption drives economic development, but it causes emissions of CO2 and air pollutants such as SO2 and NOX
10,000 yuan in 2020, we found that the limits of energy consumption intensity and total energy consumption in 2025 are 0.4433 tce 10,000 yuan and 57.63 billion tce, respectively
Since energy consumption is an important physical resource for provincial economic development and its mobility is poor, we initially allocated the energy consumption based on the principle of grandfathering
Summary
Energy consumption drives economic development, but it causes emissions of CO2 and air pollutants such as SO2 and NOX. CO2 is not considered to be a traditional air pollutant, its emissions cause environment damage. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the control of energy consumption, air pollutants and carbon emissions and has adopted a series of measures such as total quantity control, provincial quota allocation and emissions trading. Statistics show that China has achieved the 2020 targets for energy saving and emissions reduction set in the 13th Five-Year Plan ahead of schedule. China’s energy consumption and atmospheric emissions continue to grow, the gap between energy supply and demand is widening and the quality of urban atmospheric environment is still poor. According to the 14th Five-Year Plan [1], the Chinese government will continue to strengthen its energy saving and emission reduction
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