Spatial effects of dynamic comprehensive energy efficiency on CO2 reduction in China

Abstract

Controlling the growth of CO2 emissions has become a focus of China and improving energy efficiency is widely regarded as one of the most effective measures to reduce CO2 emissions. By constructing a dynamic comprehensive energy efficiency index, we estimated the energy efficiency of 30 provinces in China from 2001 to 2017 using the stochastic frontier analysis method. Then, we investigated the spatial effects of energy efficiency on CO2 emissions and its regional heterogeneity under geographic, economic, and social weight matrices by using the spatial Durbin model. The results indicate that the comprehensive energy efficiency of China shows a gradual improvement trend during the sample period. There exist spatial spillover effects of energy efficiency on regional CO2 reduction. Energy efficiency improvement in the eastern region shows significant spillover effect on neighboring area's CO2 reduction under the three weight matrices. The central region exhibits this spatial effect only under the weight of economic distance. However, there is no significant spillover effect in the western region. Economic factors play a greater role in the spillover effect of energy efficiency. The findings of this paper provide several important policy implications for improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions in various regions of China.