Study on stochastic convergence of China’s carbon emission efficiency

ABSTRACT

Carbon emission efficiency (CEE) and its stochastic convergence are important indicators for achieving the strategic goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Thus, this paper firstly estimates the CEE of 30 provinces in China from 1995 to 2019 with the super efficiency of the SBM model. Then the panel unit root test method is adopted to test its stochastic convergence. The results show that the overall CEE has not reached the effective level, and the CEE level varies greatly among regions. There is a stochastic divergence of CEE in most regions from 1995 to 2001. While the CEE of most regions changes to convergence after 2002. From 1995 to 2019, the CEE of the western, northeast, and southwest regions diverge. While the CEE of the national level, the eastern, central regions, and the other six regions in the eight major economic zones converged stochastically. Among the divergent areas, the CEE of Heilongjiang, Guangxi, and Sichuan provinces are the main contributors to the CEE divergence. Therefore, it is the key to narrowing the differences in regional low-carbon development in China by significantly improving the CEE of each province.

KEYWORDS:

• Carbon emission efficiency
• Super SBM model
• stochastic convergence
• panel unit root test

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 As part of an important national economic plan, the Five-Year Plan in China mainly sets instructions for core national construction projects, which has provided clear directions for China’s long-run economic development.

2 To be precise, it refers to 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, which we omit in the paper as 30 provinces for convenience.

3 During the 7th Five-Year Plan period, given the full consideration of both economic development level and geographical location, the Chinese mainland was divided into three regions in general: the east, the central, and the west. Most studies take this division.

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the following financial support: Youth Project of National Social Science Fund (19CJY001), the Major Project of the School of Economics in Henan University “Research on Ecological Civilization Economy in the New Era”, and Henan University Teaching Reform Research and Practice Project “Path Research on Promoting Carbon Neutrality Economics General Education” (HDXJJG2023-052).

Notes on contributors

Guangyue Xu

Guangyue Xu is a professor of economics at the School of Economics at Henan University. He primarily focuses on energy economics and climate change economics. He has published nearly 50 papers and 10 academic monographs.

Shuang Li

Shuang Li, a postgraduate student at Henan University, specializes in energy economics.

Yuanyuan Gong

Yuanyuan Gong, an associate professor at Henan University of Economics and Law, focuses on environmental economics and digital economics. She has published over 10 academic papers, authored two monographs, and participated in more than 10 research projects in environmental economics.