Total-factor energy productivity growth of regions in Japan

This article computes the energy productivity changes of regions in Japan using total-factor frameworks based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). Since the traditional DEA-Malmquist index cannot analyze changes in single-factor productivity changes under the total-factor framework, we apply a new index proposed by Hu and Chang [2009. Total-factor energy productivity growth of regions in China. Energy Policy, submitted for publication]: a total-factor energy productivity change index (TFEPI) that integrates the concept of the total-factor energy efficiency index into the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). Moreover, we separate TFEPI into change in relative energy efficiency, or the ‘catching up effect,’ and shift in the technology of energy use, or the ‘innovation effect.’ The data from 47 prefectures during the period of 1993–2003 are used to compute the TFEPI and its components for 4 kinds of energy. The TFEPI of electric power for commercial and industrial use changes −0.6% annually, which can be separated into a total-factor energy efficiency change of 0.2% and a technical change of −0.8%. The TFEPI for coal deteriorates by 1.0%/year, which is mostly caused by a decrease in relative energy efficiency change. We define and identify ‘innovators’ who cause the frontier to shift. Most regions identified as frontier shifters are located outside of Japan's four major industrial areas.     

Total-factor energy efficiency of regions in China

This paper analyzes energy efficiencies of 29 administrative regions in China for the period 1995–2002 with a newly introduced index. Most existing studies of regional productivity and efficiency neglect energy inputs. We use the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to find the target energy input of each region in China at each particular year. The index of total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) then divides the target energy input by the actual energy input. In our DEA model, labor, capital stock, energy consumption, and total sown area of farm crops used as a proxy of biomass energy are the four inputs and real GDP is the single output. The conventional energy productivity ratio regarded as a partial-factor energy efficiency index is computed for comparison in contrast to TFEE; our index is found fitting better to the real case. According to the TFEE index rankings, the central area of China has the worst energy efficiency and its total adjustmentof energy consumption amount is over half of China's total. Regional TFEE in China generally improved during the research period except for the western area. A U-shape relation between the area's TFEE and per capita income in the areas of China is found, confirming the scenario that energy efficiency eventually improves with economic growth.     

Scenario-based energy efficiency and productivity in China: A non-radial directional distance function analysis

Improving energy efficiency and productivity is one of the most cost-effective ways for achieving the sustainable development target in China. This paper employs non-radial directional distance function approach to empirically investigate energy efficiency and energy productivity by including CO₂ emissions as an undesirable output. Three production scenarios, namely energy conservation (EC), energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER), and energy conservation, emission reduction and economic growth (ECEREG), are specified to assess China's energy efficiency and productivity growth during the period of Eleventh Five-Year Plan. Our empirical results show that there exist substantial differences in China's total-factor energy efficiency and productivity under different scenarios. Under the ECEREG scenario, the national average total-factor energy efficiency score was 0.6306 in 2005–2010, while the national average total-factor energy productivity increased by 0.27% annually during the period. The main driving force for energy productivity growth in China was energy technological change rather than energy efficiency change.     

Total-factor energy efficiency in developing countries

This paper uses a total-factor framework to investigate energy efficiency in 23 developing countries during the period of 1980–2005. We explore the total-factor energy efficiency and change trends by applying data envelopment analysis (DEA) window, which is capable of measuring efficiency in cross-sectional and time-varying data. The empirical results indicate that Botswana, Mexico and Panama perform the best in terms of energy efficiency, whereas Kenya, Sri Lanka, Syria and the Philippines perform the worst during the entire research period. Seven countries show little change in energy efficiency over time. Eleven countries experienced continuous decreases in energy efficiency. Among five countries witnessing continuous increase in total-factor energy efficiency, China experienced the most rapid rise. Practice in China indicates that effective energy policies play a crucial role in improving energy efficiency. Tobit regression analysis indicates that a U-shaped relationship exists between total-factor energy efficiency and income per capita.     

Energy efficiency and productivity change of China’s iron and steel industry: Accounting for undesirable outputs

This paper used data from 50 enterprises in China’s iron and steel industry to evaluate their energy efficiency and productivity change. The study first used a conventional data envelopment analysis model and the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to measure the energy efficiency and productivity change over the period 2001–2008. The results indicated inefficiency in many of the plants: The average energy efficiency was only 61.1%. The annual growth rate of productivity was 7.96% over this period and technical change was the main contributor to this growth. The research then took undesirable outputs into consideration by using the Malmquist–Luenberger Productivity Index (MLPI) to explore the productivity change from 2006 to 2008. Omitting undesirable outputs would result in biased efficiency change and technical change. This paper also claimed that environmental regulation has a potentially positive impact on technical change.     

The evolution and main determinants of productivity in Brazilian electricity distribution 1998–2005: An empirical analysis

This paper estimates changes in the productivity of the Brazilian electricity distribution sector using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on a panel of 18 firms from 1998 to 2005. The study decomposes the productivity change of these distribution firms in terms of technical efficiency, scale-efficiency and technical progress. This exercise aims to help the understanding of the main determinants of the evolution of productivity, focusing its relationship with the restructuring process implemented in the 1990s. TFP index records a yearly positive growth rate of 1.3% in the whole period under analysis for all firms. Technical change was the main component behind this evolution, with an average growth of 2.1% per year, while technical efficiency presented a yearly negative performance of ? 0.8%. The results prove that, in general terms, the incentives generated in the reform process do not seem to have led the firms to behave in a more efficient manner.     

Efficient energy-saving targets for APEC economies

Energy-saving target ratios (ESTR) for 17 APEC economies during 1991–2000 are computed in a total-factor framework. All nominal variables are transformed into real variables by the purchasing power parity (PPP) at the 1995 price level. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach is used to find the energy-saving target (EST) for APEC economies without reducing their maximum potential gross domestic productions (GDPs) in each year. Energy, labor, and capital are the three inputs, while GDP is the single output. Our major findings are as follows: (1) China has the largest EST up to almost half of its current usage. (2) Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the United States have the highest energy efficiency. (3) The energy efficiency generally increases for APEC economies except for Canada and New Zealand. (4) Chile, Mexico, and Taiwan have significantly improved their energy efficiency in the last 5 years. (5) An inverted U-shape relation exists between per capita EST and per capita GDP. (6) ESTR has a positive relation with the value-added percentage of GDP of the industry sector and a negative relation with that of the service sector.     

北京市全要素能源效率变动趋势及其影响因素分析

采用回归分析和DEA方法,在与全国平均水平对比情境下测度了北京市1991～2015年全要素能源效率,并基于回归分析探求了全要素能源效率的主要影响因素。结果表明:1991～2009年北京市全要素能源效率基本持续增加,"十二五"期间将进一步提升;北京市近年来全要素能源效率变动的主要影响因素为产业结构、地区经济发展、能源价格及技术进步。     

经济和能源地缘格局变化及中美战略对策

本世纪头10年世界经济发展和能源消费增长重心东移,转向东亚—南亚弧形地带,其中中国和印度成为领跑者,这一趋势将至少持续到本世纪30年代。中国和印度占世界GDP的份额分别从2000年的3.72%和1.49%上升到2010年的9.34%和2.44%。2000～2010年间世界能源消费总量年均增长率为2.67%,而中国和印度则分别为11.54%和5.18%。2001～2010年间,北美、日本的石油进口量呈下降趋势,欧洲呈微弱增长态势;而同期中国石油进口量年均增长率达16.29%,印度2000～2009年间石油进口量年均增长率为6.32%。2000～2010年间世界煤炭消费量年均增长率为4.84%,2010年煤炭占基础能源的30%;而中国10年间煤炭消费量的年均增长率为13.21%,2010年煤炭占基础能源的70.3%。中国能源消费总量增长过快、能源构成不合理的问题相当突出,必须加大对能源消费总量的控制,大力调整能源结构,坚决扭转煤炭占能源构成比例持续升高的局面。与经济发展和能源消费增长重心东移相应的是中美两国战略思维的变化。美国战略重点东移、"重返亚洲"的目的是遏制中国,这不过是冷战时期围堵的老思维;但美国同时又必须与中国合作,双方的相互渗透、相互依存已经达到相当的程度。而中国必须看到国内外经济形势的变化,形成新的战略思维,改变发展方式,坚定不移地以改革促稳定,以结构调整保发展。     

Total-factor carbon emission performance of fossil fuel power plants in China: A metafrontier non-radial Malmquist index analysis

This paper proposes the metafrontier non-radial Malmquist CO₂ emission performance index (MNMCPI) for measuring dynamic changes in total-factor CO₂ emission performance over time. The MNMCPI method allows for the incorporation of group heterogeneity and non-radial slack into the previously introduced Malmquist CO₂ emission performance index (MCPI). We derive the MNMCPI by solving several non-radial data envelopment analysis (DEA) models. We decompose the MNMCPI into an efficiency change (EC) index, a best-practice gap change (BPC) index, and a technology gap change (TGC) index, and based on the proposed indices, we examine the dynamic changes in CO₂ emission performance and its decomposition of fossil fuel power plants in China for the 2005–2010 period. The empirical results show a 0.38% increase in total-factor CO₂ emission performance as a whole and a U-shaped MNMCPI curve for the sample period. Because companies owned by the central government lack innovation and technological leadership, the results suggest a missing link in the role of the central government in promoting CO₂ emission performance.     

Does environmental regulation affect energy efficiency in China's thermal power generation? Empirical evidence from a slacks-based DEA model

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has gained much popularity in performance measurement of power industry. This paper presents a slack-based measure approach to investigating the relationship between fossil fuel consumption and the environmental regulation of China's thermal power generation. We first calculate the total-factor energy efficiency without considering environmental constraints. An environmental performance indicator is proposed through decomposing the total-factor energy efficiency. The proposed approach is then employed to examine whether environmental regulation affects the energy efficiency of China's thermal power generation. We find that the environmental efficiency plays a significant role in affecting energy performance of China's thermal generation sector. Decreasing the discharge of major pollutants can improve both energy performance and environmental efficiency. Besides, we also have three main findings: (1) The energy efficiency and environmental efficiency were relatively low. (2) The energy and environmental efficiency scores show great variations among provinces. (3) Both energy efficiency and environmental efficiency are of obvious geographical characteristics. According to our findings, we suggest some policy implications.     

CO2 emissions reduction of Chinese light manufacturing industries: A novel RAM-based global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index

Climate change has become one of the most challenging issues facing the world. Chinese government has realized the importance of energy conservation and prevention of the climate changes for sustainable development of China's economy and set targets for CO₂ emissions reduction in China. In China industry contributes 84.2% of the total CO₂ emissions, especially manufacturing industries. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist productivity (MP) index are the widely used mathematical techniques to address the relative efficiency and productivity of a group of homogenous decision making units, e.g. industries or countries. However, in many real applications, especially those related to energy efficiency, there are often undesirable outputs, e.g. the pollutions, waste and CO₂ emissions, which are produced inevitably with desirable outputs in the production. This paper introduces a novel Malmquist–Luenberger productivity (MLP) index based on directional distance function (DDF) to address the issue of productivity evolution of DMUs in the presence of undesirable outputs. The new RAM (Range-adjusted measure)-based global MLP index has been applied to evaluate CO₂ emissions reduction in Chinese light manufacturing industries. Recommendations for policy makers have been discussed.     

Sources of energy productivity change in China during 1997–2012: A decomposition analysis based on the Luenberger productivity indicator

Given that different energy inputs play different roles in production and that energy policy decision making requires an evaluation of productivity change in individual energy input to provide insight into the scope for improvement of the utilization of specific energy input, this study develops, based on the Luenberger productivity indicator and data envelopment analysis models, an aggregated specific energy productivity indicator combining the individual energy input productivity indicators that account for the contributions of each specific energy input toward energy productivity change. In addition, these indicators can be further decomposed into four factors: pure efficiency change, scale efficiency change, pure technology change, and scale of technology change. These decompositions enable a determination of which specific energy input is the driving force of energy productivity change and which of the four factors is the primary contributor of energy productivity change. An empirical analysis of China's energy productivity change over the period 1997–2012 indicates that (i) China's energy productivity growth may be overestimated if energy consumption structure is omitted; (ii) in regard to the contribution of specific energy input toward energy productivity growth, oil and electricity show positive contributions, but coal and natural gas show negative contributions; (iii) energy-specific productivity changes are mainly caused by technical changes rather than efficiency changes; and (iv) the Porter Hypothesis is partially supported in China that carbon emissions control regulations may lead to energy productivity growth.     

Measuring energy performance with sectoral heterogeneity: A non-parametric frontier approach

Evaluating economy-wide energy performance is an integral part of assessing the effectiveness of a country's energy efficiency policy. Non-parametric frontier approach has been widely used by researchers for such a purpose. This paper proposes an extended non-parametric frontier approach to studying economy-wide energy efficiency and productivity performances by accounting for sectoral heterogeneity. Relevant techniques in index number theory are incorporated to quantify the driving forces behind changes in the economy-wide energy productivity index. The proposed approach facilitates flexible modelling of different sectors' production processes, and helps to examine sectors' impact on the aggregate energy performance. A case study of China's economy-wide energy efficiency and productivity performances in its 11th five-year plan period (2006–2010) is presented. It is found that sectoral heterogeneities in terms of energy performance are significant in China. Meanwhile, China's economy-wide energy productivity increased slightly during the study period, mainly driven by the technical efficiency improvement. A number of other findings have also been reported.     

The costs of mitigating carbon emissions in China: findings from China MARKAL-MACRO modeling

In this paper MARKAL-MACRO, an integrated energy-environment-economy model, is used to generate China’s reference scenario for future energy development and carbon emission through the year 2050. The results show that with great efforts on structure adjustment, energy efficiency improvement and energy substitution, China’s primary energy consumption is expected to be 4818 Mtce and carbon emission 2394 MtC by 2050 with annual decrease rate of 3% for the carbon intensity per GDP during the period 2000–2050. On the basis of this reference scenario, China’s marginal abatement cost curves of carbon for the year 2010, 2020 and 2030 are derived from the model, and the impacts of carbon emission abatement on GDP are also simulated. The results are compared with those from other sources. The research shows that the marginal abatement costs vary from 12US$/tC to 216US$/tC and the rates of GDP losses relative to reference range from 0.1% to 2.54% for the reduction rates between 5% and 45%. Both the marginal abatement costs and the rates of GDP losses further enlarge on condition that the maximum capacity of nuclear power is constrained to 240 GW or 160 GW by 2050. The paper concludes that China's costs of carbon abatement is rather high in case of carbon emissions are further cut beyond the reference scenario, and China's carbon abatement room is limited due to her coal-dominant energy resource characteristic. As economic development still remains the priority and per capita income as well as per capita carbon emission are far below the world average, it will be more realistic for China to make continuous contributions to combating global climate change by implementing sustainable development strategy domestically and playing an active role in the international carbon mitigation cooperation mechanisms rather than accepting a carbon emission ceiling.     

The decomposition of total-factor CO2 emission efficiency of 97 contracting countries in Paris Agreement

Greenhouse gas reduction requires joint efforts from the global society, while improving CO₂ emission efficiency is a centrally important means to realize emission reduction targets. Therefore, it is of strategic importance to identify main influential factors to CO₂ emission efficiency of different countries by considering the technology heterogeneity. The originality herein lies in that, applying the modified decomposition method of Metafrontier Malmquist Luenberger Index (MML) to define the priority of contracting countries in Paris Agreement to improve emission efficiency. In this study, 97 contracting countries of Paris Agreement are divided into 4 groups according to levels of income (low-income countries, lower-middle income countries, upper-middle income countries and high-income countries), and studied with their input and output data during 1990–2014 as samples. The empirical results reveal that the paths for the contracting countries of Paris Agreement to improve the efficiency are different: first, lower-middle income group can be facilitated through increasing factor input to increase the MML index considering the highest increase in scale efficiency (2.78%). Second, low-income group should eliminate the excessive concentration of inputs by enhancing the energy management efficiency. Third, in terms of the significant advancement of high-income group's MML index brought by technology advancement and the abnormal drop of Brunei Darussalam's MML related to technology decay, this analysis emphasized that the advancement and innovation of energy technology are the main force for total-factor CO₂ emission efficiency improvement.     

Market distortions and aggregate productivity: Evidence from Chinese energy enterprises

Market distortions can generate resource misallocations across heterogeneous firms and reduce aggregate productivity. This paper measures market distortions and aggregate productivity growth in China's energy sector. We use the wedge between output elasticities and factor shares in revenues to recover a measure of firm-level market distortions. Using data on a large sample of Chinese energy enterprises from 1999 to 2007, our estimations provide strong evidence of the existence of both factor and product market distortions within and across China's various energy industries. The productivity aggregation and decomposition results demonstrate that the estimated aggregate productivity growth (APG) is, on average, 2.595% points per year, of which technological change, resource reallocation, and firm entries and exits account for 1.981, 0.068, and 0.546% points, respectively. The weak contributions of resource reallocation and firm turnover to APG are also found in energy sub-industries, except in the coal industry. Our research suggests that China's energy sector has major potential for productivity gains from resource reallocation through the reduction of market distortions.     

安装于跨海桥梁下部结构的竖轴潮流能水轮机水动力性能研究

文章采用物理模型实验和基于Fluent的二维数值模拟方法研究了竖轴水轮机安装在典型桥梁下部结构(单圆桩、圆端形墩台、四圆桩)且相对尺寸发生变化时,水轮机水动力性能的变化情况.研究结果表明:与桥梁下部结构组合后,竖轴水轮机的能量输出显著提升,单圆桩提升幅度最大,圆端形墩台次之,四圆桩最小;单圆桩和圆端形墩台相对水轮机尺寸...     

Energy productivity and Chinese local officials’ promotions: Evidence from provincial governors

Improving energy productivity is one of the most cost-effective ways to achieve a sustainable development target. The existing literature has shown some factors that have driven the improvement in China’s energy productivity. However, these studies do little to tackle the role of Chinese local officials. Political promotions can be seen as the most important career incentive for Chinese local officials. Hence, we intend to study whether energy productivity affects Chinese local officials’ promotions in this paper. The data of position changes for the 31 provincial governors during 1978‐2012 are utilized. We adopted probit models to empirically examine the correlation between provincial governors’ political promotions and energy productivity. The empirical results demonstrate that (1) energy productivity has a significantly positive impact on provincial governors’ political promotions in China, meaning that the provincial governors have the momentum to improve energy productivity; and (2) the effect of energy productivity on provincial governors’ political promotions has evolved, dynamically changing along with the transformation of the economic growth mode and the adjustment of the local officials’ promotion mechanism. The results are helpful in understanding the drivers of the improvement in China’s energy productivity and provide insightful implications for conducting energy policy in China.     

Sustainable development of energy systems for western China

The distribution of energy and industry in China is extremely uneven. The western region is rich in energy resources but relatively economically backward, while the eastern region, particularly, the southeast coastal area, is an industrially-developed area but is short of energy resources. On the basis of such a situation, this paper recommends the sustainable development of energy systems for the western region. The specific innovative energy systems adopted here can convert the western region's fossil fuels to alternative fuels and electricity with higher efficiency, lower investment cost, and less impact upon the environment. As one of such innovative energy systems, the MES (multi-functional energy system) can achieve 10–14% in the energy conservation ratio, 4–8% reduction of investment cost, and a 10–37% decrease of main pollutants. Moreover, its adoption will increase the income and accelerate the development of the energy industry in the western region, as well as meet the energy demand of the eastern region. The analysis in this paper presents a feasible energy road map for the rapid yet sustainable development of China's western region.