The empirical study on the efficiency of regional energy conservation and emissions reduction in China

Abstract

This paper using DEA-Malmquist productivity index evaluation method, build an evaluation index system of provincial energy conservation and emissions reduction including the energy conservation, emission reduction, desirable output and undesirable output indicators. The result shows that the efficiency of China's energy conservation and emissions reduction is promoted, mainly owes to technological progress; the efficiency of energy conservation and emissions reduction between regions are different. With the exception of Shanxi, Guizhou, Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Zhejiang having bigger than 1.1 in the efficiency of energy conservation and emissions reduction, all other regions present an obvious gap from the highest one. In particular, the efficiency in Qinghai, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan and Xingjiang is lesser than 1, indicating that the efficiency has much space to improve. And then, the redundancy of the input is used to further analyze the cause of the efficiency of energy conservation and emissions reduction. We find that the redundancy of energy consumption is the largest among all the input in nation and regions, which reflect that the low energy efficiency is the most important reason restricts the efficiency of the energy conservation and emissions reduction. Generally, the input efficiency in eastern region is higher than the central and western regions, which can explain why the energy conservation and emissions reduction is most efficient in eastern region.