The evaluation of energy–environmental efficiency of China’s industrial sector: based on Super-SBM model

Abstract

With the process of urbanization and industrialization, a growing attention has been paid to the energy–environmental efficiency in China’s industrial sector. Such researches mainly focused on calculating the efficiency and exploring its driving factors at sectoral, provincial and regional perspectives. In this paper, we proposed to evaluate the energy–environmental efficiency of China’ industrial sector and its driving factors at a dynamic change perspective. Combining super-slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model and Malmquist index, this paper calculated the energy–environmental efficiency of China’s 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2012 to 2016 and captured its dynamic change. Then we aggregated China’s 30 provinces into three groups based on their relevant dynamic change values, namely high-growth, mid-growth and low-growth groups. Finally, we verified the impact of investment in pollution control on industrial energy–environmental efficiency in different groups. The results showed that: Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Hunan, Tianjin and Shaanxi performed efficiently during the whole study period. Most provinces have improved their energy–environmental efficiency from 2012 to 2016. The decomposition results indicated that the technology change was responsible for the growth of energy–environmental efficiency. Economic development level positively and significantly influenced the energy–environmental efficiency of the industrial sector as a whole and three groups, while pollution control investment had a significantly negative effect on energy–environmental efficiency of high-growth and low-growth groups. This study concluded that all the provinces should pay attention to technology progress and sustainable pollution control investment for improving the energy–environmental efficiency in the long term. Additionally, differentiated strategies to improve energy–environmental efficiency for different provinces and groups should be implemented.

Graphic abstract