Efficiency evaluation and influencing factors of energy saving and emission reduction: An empirical study of China’s three major urban agglomerations from the perspective of environmental benefits

Abstract

China’s three major urban agglomerations, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and Pearl River Delta (PRD), are expected the key areas of energy saving and emission reduction. Based on the connotation of energy saving and emission reduction, we constructed the input–output index system considering environmental benefits, and then used the SBM-Undesirable (Slack-based Measure Considering Undesirable-outputs) model to evaluate the energy saving and emission reduction efficiency (EE) of 49 cities in China’s three major urban agglomerations during 2006–2018. Finally, the paper applied the spatial econometric model to explore the influencing factors of EE. The research results indicate that the overall EE across cities is relatively low, only 7 cities have been on the production frontier. The EE of China’s three urban agglomerations is significant, presenting the development state of “PRD > YRD > BTH”. The spatial autocorrelation of BTH urban agglomeration changed from positive to negative, the YRD urban agglomeration kept relatively stable positive spatial autocorrelation, while the spatial autocorrelation of PRD urban agglomeration was negative during the study period. The results of the spatial econometric analysis show that the relationship between economic development and EE is an “inverted U-shaped” in BTH urban agglomeration, while an “S-shaped” in YRD and PRD urban agglomerations. The urbanization and energy structure have significant negative effects on EE in three major urban agglomerations, and the effect of urbanization on EE is much greater than that of energy structure. Besides, the industrial structure has a significant negative impact on the EE of BTH urban agglomeration. The opening-up degree can significantly inhibit the improvement of EE in YRD urban agglomeration. The impact of resource endowment on the EE of three urban agglomerations is not significant. According to the empirical results, some policy commendations are proposed.