Measuring total‐factor energy environment efficiency, energy‐saving and carbon emission‐reduction potential in China's food industry: Based on a meta‐frontier slacks‐based measure model

Abstract

AbstractChina's food industry is a large energy consumer and carbon emitter due to its huge scale, so it cannot be ignored if China wants to achieve the goals of energy conservation, emission reduction, and clean production. It is necessary to conduct an in‐depth analysis of the energy environment efficiency of the industry. This paper measures the total‐factor energy environment efficiency (TFEEE) of China's food industry and calculates its energy‐saving and CO2 emission‐reduction potential. A method that combines the slacks‐based measure (SBM) model with meta‐frontier technology is adopted, which considers the heterogeneity of production between regions while dealing with the undesirable output (CO2 emissions). This method is used to calculate the energy environment efficiency of each province based on the group frontier (GTFEEE) and the meta‐frontier (MTFEEE). Through the difference between these two efficiencies, the energy‐saving potential is further decomposed into energy saving from management efficiency improvement and energy saving from technology catch‐up. The results show that, overall, the energy environment efficiency of China's food industry is low, and there are obvious technology gaps between regions. In 2013, the energy‐saving potential of China's food industry reached 49.28 million tce, accounting for 60.7% of the industry's energy consumption that year. Among them, 76% came from the improvement of management efficiency. And the CO2 emission‐reduction potential was 154.6 million tons. Finally, targeted energy saving and emission reduction recommendations were put forward.