Analysis of Low-Carbon Economy Efficiency of Chinese Industrial Sectors Based on a RAM Model with Undesirable Outputs

Ming Meng, Yanan Fu, Tianyu Wang and Kaiqiang Jing
Additional contact information
Ming Meng: Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, China
Yanan Fu: Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, China
Tianyu Wang: Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, China
Kaiqiang Jing: Department of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071003, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: Industrial energy and environment efficiency evaluation become especially crucial as industrial sectors play a key role in CO 2 emission reduction and energy consumption. This study adopts the additive range-adjusted measure data envelope analysis (RAM-DEA) model to estimate the low-carbon economy efficiency of Chinese industrial sectors in 2001–2013. In addition, the CO 2 emission intensity mitigation target for each industrial sector is assigned. Results show that, first, most sectors are not completely efficient, but they have experienced and have improved greatly during the period. These sectors can be divided into four categories, namely, mining, light, heavy, and electricity, gas, and water supply industries. The efficiency is diverse among the four industrial categories. The average efficiency of the light industry is the highest among the industries, followed by those of the mining and the electricity, gas, and water supply industries, and that of the heavy industry is the lowest. Second, the electricity, gas, and water supply industry shows the biggest potential for CO 2 emission reduction, thus containing most of the sectors with large CO 2 emission intensity mitigation targets (more than 45%), followed by the mining and the light industries. Therefore, the Chinese government should formulate diverse and flexible policy implementations according to the actual situation of the different sectors. Specifically, the sectors with low efficiency should be provided with additional policy support (such as technology and finance aids) to improve their industrial efficiency, whereas the electricity, gas, and water supply industry should maximize CO 2 emission reduction.

Keywords: low-carbon economy efficiency; RAM model; Industrial sectors; CO2 emission intensity; mitigation target assignment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/451/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/451/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:3:p:451-:d:93422

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().