Research on China’s Carbon Emission Efficiency and Its Regional Differences

Abstract

With the development of China’s economy, China is emitting more and more carbon. At the same time, it has also exposed the problem of carbon emission efficiency differences caused by the unbalanced development of resources and economy among regions. Based on the carbon emission panel data of provinces and cities in China from 2009 to 2018, this paper studies carbon emission efficiency and regional differences by constructing a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model that eliminates the influence of environmental factors and random factors. The research shows that: (1) Carbon emission efficiency in China is spatially distributed; carbon emission efficiency in the western region is generally lower than that in the eastern region. (2) China’s carbon emission efficiency is not entirely synchronized with economic development; carbon emission efficiency in some underdeveloped western regions has reached the forefront of China, and some developed regions in the east are in the middle position. (3) China’s carbon emission efficiency is restricted by scale efficiency; many regions in China have high pure technical efficiency, but due to low scale efficiency, overall efficiency is low. (4) Overall, China’s carbon emission efficiency is currently on the rise, but the rising rate is relatively slow, and there is still plenty of room for improvement.