Evaluating energy economic security and its influencing factors in China

Abstract

For all countries worldwide, energy economic security is an issue that needs extensive attention, even though the related focus areas might be different. Each country should ensure energy economic security and promote sustainable development according to its own specific situation. Nevertheless, the energy economic security of different countries have some common aspects. This paper discusses the connotation of energy economic security and the construction of an evaluation index system of regional energy economic security from the following four dimensions: energy industry development, energy supply capacity, energy utilization level, and energy environmental impact. Based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2017, the global principal component analysis method is used to measure the level of regional energy economic security and the performance of each dimension in China. The results show that the energy economic security of China and its regions improved between 2009 and 2017. In the short term, improvement in China’s regional environmental regulation levels will reduce its energy economic security level, but the implementation of environmental policies can promote the green development of China’s regional economy. High-quality development of the economy, improvement in urbanization levels, increases in population density, the promotion of scientific and technological levels, and the upgrading of industrial structures jointly contribute to the advancement of regional energy economic security. In addition, the elevation of urbanization, population density, and energy economic security levels in other regions are also conducive to the energy economic security of the region being studied.