Embodied energy flows in China’s economic zones: Jing-Jin-Ji, Yangtze-River-Delta and Pearl-River-Delta

Abstract

The Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ), Yangtze-River-Delta (YRD) and Pearl-River-Delta (PRD) are three major economic zones located in China’s coastal areas. To balance regional development and alleviate energy pressure, this work explores the embodied energy flows inside and outside of the JJJ, YRD, and PRD economic zones from 2007 to 2012. By using the multi-regional input-output analysis, the energy use and economic development, the internal and external embodied energy flows, and the embodied energy transfer patterns of the three economic zones are analyzed. According to the results, the direct energy use of the three economic zones accounts for approximately 30% of the national total, while the embodied energy use of the three economic zones accounts for almost 75% of the national total. On average, the energy use per capita of JJJ is much higher than that of YRD and PRD. The JJJ region mainly remains in a flow-out state, while YRD and PRD are main embodied energy receivers especially from Hebei and Shandong. As for the intra-regional relations, the main embodied energy flows are identified from Hebei to Beijing, from Hebei to Tianjin, from Jiangsu to Shanghai and from Guangdong to Hong Kong. These results and implications in this work could help in the efforts to balance the basic energy supply and realize the synergetic energy development of the economic zones from a systematical perspective.