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At present, the energy and environmental crisis is increasingly prominent, and how to solve the global energy and environmental problems is one of the challenges facing the world today. China is a major producer and consumer of organosilicon, so it is necessary to explore the stage of high energy consumption and high pollution in the organosilicon industrial chain. In 2022, the proportion of submerged arc furnaces of 25000 kVA and higher in China reached 40%. Further expansion of these furnaces in the future is inevitable. However, research on the life cycle assessment of organosilicon manufactured using large-capacity submerged arc furnaces is still blank.Therefore,in this paper, the life cycle assessment method is used to evaluate the synthesis process of chemical grade silicon-organosilicon monomer prepared by large capacity (33000 kVA) submerged arc furnace, and the dominant process in various environmental impacts is defined.At the same time, the measures to improve the production process of organosilicon monomer were put forward. In the production process of 1000 kg organosilicon monomer, global warming potential (GWP) contributed the most (73.43%) to the comprehensive environmental impact, followed by chronic public health impact (HTI, 10.55%). Energy consumption (EN) accounted for 8.50%, while resource consumption (RU) accounted for 7.43%. The contributions of other environmental factors were relatively small (0.09%).The energy consumption and environmental pollution in the production of organosilicon monomer can be reduced by strictly controlling the quality of raw materials into the furnace, using heat pump technology in the distillation unit, and comprehensively utilizing the heat of reaction by-products and steam condensate. [Display omitted] • This study is the first one in China to conduct LCA for the preparation of chemical grade silicon-organosilicon monomer synthesis process in 33000 kVA submerged arc furnace. It provides the best improvement suggestions for reducing the environmental load of the product life cycle process and achieving cleaner production. • In response to the national development policy of large-scale submerged arc furnace, the dominant process of preparing organosilicon monomer based on 33000 kva submerged arc furnace in various environmental impacts was clarified. • The main technical improvement directions are: Strictly control the quality of raw materials for submerged arc furnace; Strictly control the sulfur content and nitrogen content of carbonaceous reductant, and adopt the most suitable flue gas treatment technology route; Smelt with large submerged arc furnace; Use heat pump technology for distillation unit; Optimize the monomer synthesis device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the path of industrial eco-efficiency (IEE) needs to be re-examined from a multi-dimensional perspective, this research opens the internal "black box" of China's industrial eco-economic system driven by sustainable development goals (SDGs) and decomposes IEE into industrial production and sustainable development stages. It further divides the industrial production stage into two parallel subsystems of water use efficiency (WUE) and energy efficiency (EE) and derives SDG6 efficiency (SDG 6 E) and SDG7 efficiency (SDG 7 E) in the sustainable development stage respectively. The paper proposes a meta two-stage parallel entropy dynamic DDF-DEA model to re-measure IEE of 30 provinces in China from 2015 to 2021, discusses the relationship between overall efficiency and stage efficiency, and by using the Tobit model explores various types of influencing factors by subregion. The results show that the modified DDF-DEA model can explore China's IEE more accurately under SDGs. China's IEE is more stable from 2015 to 2021, with the efficiency value always fluctuating between 0.59 and 0.64, the overall level is low, and there is more room for improvement. There are significant inter-provincial differences in IEE and efficiency inertia. In more than 75% of the provinces SDG 7 E constrains IEE improvement, while the dynamic evolution of IEE and its subsystem efficiency varies across regions. Environmental regulation is a common factor affecting IEE across the country and in the east, central, and west regions, whereas the level of economic development, openness to the outside world, and urbanization rate are differential factors affecting IEE across the country and in the three major regions. This study offers new perspectives for exploring the path of IEE enhancement and providing empirical references for the collaborative construction of industrial ecological civilization. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of high emissions and high energy consumption in metallurgical industry have brought great challenges to the green and low carbon transition in China. As a low-carbon economic instrument, carbon tax is generally considered to be an effective way to reduce CO 2 emissions through raising energy cost, but whether it will promote the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of China's metallurgical industry is still unanswered. Under this background, this paper uses provincial panel data over years 2000–2015 to investigate the impact of carbon taxation on GTFP of metallurgical industry from the perspective of inter-fuel and inter-factor substitution. The lock-in mechanism is also incorporated in the three-stage estimation model to better reflect the asymmetric price response of factors and fuels. The results reveal that the slow marketization process of energy price and the rigid demand for energy in China's metallurgical industry hinder the substitution effect of energy. The implementation of carbon tax has limited effect on energy-saving and CO 2 reduction in the metallurgical industry of China and levying a carbon tax has a negative effect on GTFP during the research period. Therefore, the government should not achieve CO 2 reduction targets at the expense of green economic growth. GTFP is suggested to be considered in future assessment criteria in the process of transforming to low-carbon economy. Image 1063 • We estimate the inter-fuel and inter-factor substitution in China's metallurgical industry. • The Sequential- Malmquist-Luenberger index is used to measure GTFP. • The impact of carbon tax on GTFP of China's metallurgical industry is measured. • The government should not reduce CO 2 emissions at the expense of green economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial sector is characterized by high energy consumption and high carbon emissions. It is of great significance to clarify the determinants of industrial CO 2 emissions for emissions abatement policy making. For this purpose, a comprehensive decomposition framework that can quantify the impacts of both oriented technologies and economic factors on CO 2 emissions is developed. By applying the proposed decomposition framework, this paper investigates the determinants of China's industrial CO 2 emissions. The main findings show that, during the study period, (1) investment scale expansion was the leading factor promoting emissions growth; (2) against our expectations, efforts for energy structure adjustment failed to curb emissions but had marginal promoting effects on emissions growth; (3) energy-oriented and output-oriented technologies were indispensable contributors to emissions mitigation, followed by decreases in investment efficiency, potential energy intensity, and the CO 2 emission coefficient; and (4) energy use efficiency and production efficiency changes usually exerted moderate influences on industrial CO 2 emissions, and their influencing directions were sensitive in different sub-industries and Five-Year Plan periods. In most situations, the inhibiting effects could not counteract the promoting effects. Based on these empirical findings, policy recommendations to further reduce industrial CO 2 emissions are provided. • Empirical analysis was conducted at sub-industries and different FYPs levels. • Investment scale was the leading factor promoting industrial CO 2 emissions. • The technology progress contributed most to emission mitigation. • Driving effects distinctly differed among sub-industries and FYP periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The huge energy consumption and high pollutants emission have restrained the sustainable development of China's iron and steel industry. It is very necessary to explore those underlying obstacles which hinder the sustainable development of this industry from a systematic point. This paper adopted an improved emergy based method and a set of indicator system to evaluate the sustainability of steel production enterprises, in which dilution method, disability adjusted life years (DALY) method and potentially disappeared fraction (PDF) method were integrated into classic emergy analysis to quantify the impact of emissions, and then the related indicator system characterizing the industrial production process was put forward. One steel production enterprise in Sichuan Province, China, as a case, was studied using the proposed methods and indicator system. The research results show that this enterprise is not sustainable in the long term, due to large share of nonrenewable inputs and strong dependence on imported inputs; emissions' impact further aggravates this situation due to the increasing environmental loading; the proposed methods and indicator system can act as one of helpful tools for decision-making in steel & iron industry. Finally, this paper gives some corresponding suggestions so as to improve the comprehensive performance of this enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China gradually completes the process of industrialization, its industrial energy consumption growth is now slowing and even decreasing. Meanwhile, household energy consumption in the residential sector has seen steady growth. This paper aims to explore the mechanisms of factors affecting urban household energy-saving behavior including the habitual energy-saving behaviors and purchasing energy-saving behaviors. A structural equation model is built to analyze the influencing routes and effects of individual objective and subjective characteristic factors, external influencing factors, and energy-saving intentions on shaping energy-saving behaviors. The empirical results drawing on the survey data collected in Shandong province show that external influencing factors that have two kinds of mediating effects through energy-saving intentions and individual subjective characteristic factors are the most crucial factors to energy-saving behaviors. Values included in individual subjective factors and quality of energy-saving products included in external influencing factors have greatest effects on energy-saving behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the major carbon dioxide emitter, industrial sector has attracted considerable attention of the whole society on the energy saving and emissions reduction issue. Since the tobacco primary process has the typical characteristics of process industry, and it represents about 80% of the total energy consumption of cigarette production, this paper proposes an integrated model employing the e-p method, which is widely used in the energy consumption analysis of the process industry, to estimate the energy saving and emissions reduction potential of the tobacco primary process. Based on the energy consumption data of the three Chinese cigarette enterprises in 2015, the results show that as to the section energy intensity factor of the tobacco primary process, the changes of the tobacco leaf pre-conditioning section and the cut lamina drying section can lead to 18%–47% and 9%–36% reduction of the unit cut tobacco energy intensity, and as to the production ratio factor, the lower proportion of cut stem can lead to 15%–33% reduction of the unit cut tobacco energy intensity because of the higher energy intensity of the stem process section. In addition, scenario analysis has been used to discover the energy saving and emissions reduction potential by process optimization and products structure upgrade under the premise of the fixed total production volume, the actual production portfolio and process equipment of three enterprises. Finally, the effective measures and policy suggestions to realize the goal of energy saving and emissions reduction for three cigarette enterprises are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle-class expansion has played a crucial role in driving the changes in embodied carbon emissions. However, its driving mechanisms still need to be clarified. In this paper, we compiled novel multiregional input-output tables to capture the rise of the middle class in China in terms of its expansion and consumption pattern changes. Structural path analysis was employed to investigate the critical paths of embodied carbon emissions from middle classes of different regions in China during 2012–2015. Structural path decomposition was further used to explore the driving factors along the paths, including changes in population size, consumption patterns, industrial structure, and carbon intensity. Our results show that, from 2012 to 2015, the role of the middle class in driving carbon emissions through the most critical paths was either enhanced or reduced depending on different factorial changes. Generally, the paths with enhanced roles of the middle class stemmed from the urban and rural middle classes in Central China, Southwestern Coastal, and Northern Coastal regions, and the changes in consumption patterns and population of the urban middle class were the main driving factors. The top 30 paths of carbon emissions growth driven by the urban and rural middle classes approximately increase 19.5 Mt and 8 Mt of carbon emissions, respectively. In contrast, most of the paths with the weakened role of the middle class were intraregional paths in the Southern Coastal and Eastern Coastal regions, and carbon intensity was the dominant factor governing the changes. Our analysis systematically revealed, for the first time, the heterogeneous impacts and driving factors of middle-class expansion in different regions of China on carbon emissions. Therefore, it provides new insights for climate mitigation in the context of China's plan to cultivate a majority middle-class society. • New multiregional input-output tables are compiled for the rise of the middle class in China. • Middle-class expansion has heterogeneous effects on regional carbon emissions. • Urban and rural middle class lead to an incease of 19.5 and 8 Mt CO2 for top 30 paths, respectively. • Four driving factors play different roles in supply chains affecting carbon emissions. • Consumption patterns and urban middle-class size changes were the main driving factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy consumption of China’s six most energy-intensive sub-industries is about half of the total national energy consumption, and accounts for more than 70% of industrial energy consumption in recent years. These six industries are capital and energy intensive and have a great impact on the energy consumption of China, so they are directly related to the achievement of the energy conservation goal in the 13th Five Year Plan. This paper investigates the influential factors of energy consumption in the industries by employing the cointegration method, and estimates the possible energy conservation potential considering energy rebound effect. The results show that GDP and the scale of industries are the deterministic factors increasing energy consumption, while R&D intensity decreases it. Energy price has little impact on energy consumption. The average energy rebound effect is calculated using the latent variable approach and the result is 90.75%. Considering energy rebound effect, the energy conservation potential of China’s energy intensive industries is 14.18–26.54 million tons of standard coal equivalent in 2020 and 44.64–80.72 million tons of standard coal equivalent in 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving eco-efficiency is an important way to promote environmental decoupling. Based on the input-output model and data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper evaluates the eco-efficiency of 44 sectors in China with a new DEA model considering inter-sectoral linkages, then explores how the industrial network would be optimized as inefficient sectors become efficient under constant resources supply and constant final demand. The empirical results indicate that 22 sectors are inefficient and deserve further improvement. Inefficient sectors becoming efficient will drive the industrial network to evolve in a more intensive direction, and allow the economy to achieve greater economic benefits with less energy consumption and pollution. Accounting under constant resources supply suggests that increasing external demand should be a key to promoting environmental decoupling in the economy. Accounting under constant final demand indicates more stringent environmental regulations should be used to drive technology upgrades. • A new eco-efficiency measurement combining the input-output model and DEA is built. • The eco-efficiency and potential deficiencies of 44 sectors in China are evaluated. • The impact of inefficient sectors becoming efficient on the economy is measured. • The industrial network presents significant potential for environmental decoupling. • Key constraints to environmental decoupling in the industrial network are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deteriorating air quality, which is linked to human actions related to energy resources, has become an urgent global problem. China's air pollution has reached the hazardous level since 2000s. In consideration of the serious health and social problems, residential demand for clean air is increasing. This paper applies the Contingent Valuation method to estimate public's willingness to pay (WTP) for reducing air pollution in the urban area of China. Open-ended scenarios through face-to-face surveys are used to elicit public's WTP. The Two-Part model is employed for the estimation: the probit model is used to estimate the probability of respondents who have positive WTP values, and the interval regression model is employed to estimate the specific WTP level of those with nonzero WTP values. The results show that nearly 90% of the respondents are willing to pay for reducing air pollution, and the average amount of WTP per individual is 382.6RMB per year. Household income is found to be positively correlated with people's WTP, and those who trust the government are more willing to share the cost of reducing air pollution. This study recommends designing some effective mechanisms to tap the potentially available source of money for smog mitigation and improving the transparency of smog governance to enhance the government credibility as solutions to cope with smog crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting energy efficiency technologies (EETs) in heavy industrial sector is a crucial approach for energy conservation worldwide. Due to the existence of various barriers, the diffusion of EETs is often slow and is largely influenced by policy incentives. Insufficient consideration of the heterogeneity of EETs makes the one-size-fits-all policy design scheme ineffective and inefficient in practice. Therefore, this paper analyzes the design of differentiated technology policies to accelerate the promotion of EETs. The analysis is based on technology classification results from a bottom-up technology evaluation system. Technical attributes were qualitatively analyzed and the 130 total technologies were divided into three segments: 76 main production-process technologies (PP), 39 process-integrated resource and energy recycling technologies (RER) and 15 pollution control technologies (PC). Then the 115 PP and RER technologies were quantitatively analyzed by calculating benefit-cost ratio, investment payback time and technical penetration. The evaluation results proved that EETs had marked differences in economic efficiency and technical maturity, with dynamic investment payback time ranging from 0.3 to 11 years and penetrations ranging from 1% to 80%. Graphing investment payback time on a vertical axis and technical penetration on a horizontal axis, the 115 technologies were classified into four quadrants. Features and policy-support demands of those three types of technologies in the four quadrants were discussed and corresponding technology policies were proposed. The thorough technical investigations in this study also provided a complete technological database for policy-making, which was freely offered on the website of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to classical economics, the substitution of production factors could be used to reduce a specific input factor, but it is restricted by the irreplaceability of factors. As an essential production factor of production, can energy be substituted by other factors such as capital or labor? How significant is the substitution effect between factors or energy varieties? This paper attempts to study a paradigm to analyze the effectiveness of element substitution for energy saving. This paper explores the substitution relationship between inter-factor and inter-fuel from 1985 to 2017, which is based on the trans-log cost function. At the same time, the contribution of budget effect, substitution effect, output effect are analyzed in this paper as well as technological progress to the reduction of carbon emission intensity. As being found, the marketization of energy prices is underdeveloped, which hinders the substitution effect of energy in the metallurgical industry. The own-price elasticities of labor, energy, and capital are −0.3261, −0.1569, and −0.0706, respectively. The substitution of energy by capital is a more effective and sustainable alternative. Besides, a carbon tax can save 22.25 million TCE of energy consumption and reduce 62.67 million tons of carbon emissions in the whole industry. • This paper attempts to study a paradigm about element substitution for energy saving. • Investigate the substitution relationship between inter-factor and inter-fuel. • Analyze the contribution of budget, substitution, output, and technology to the reduction of carbon intensity. • Carbon tax can reduce 62.7 million tons of carbon emissions, accounting for 2.7% of the total industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector is an important industry in China's economic development and energy consumption, and research on its energy efficiency has attracted increasing attention from researchers. Currently, the traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model ignores the competition among regions, resulting in inaccurate estimation of efficiency. This paper employed traditional DEA, cross-efficiency DEA and game cross-efficiency DEA approaches to measure the energy efficiency of the construction industry in 30 of China's provinces from 2005 to 2016. The temporal trend and spatial distribution characteristics of energy efficiency determined through the game cross-efficiency method were then depicted by clustering analysis. Finally, the spatial heterogeneity of energy efficiency was analysed in detail. The results indicated that the efficiency calculated using the game cross-efficiency DEA model considering the competitive relationship was lower than the traditionally calculated efficiency and higher than the efficiency calculated using cross-efficiency DEA. Moreover, during the period of study, the energy efficiency showed a holistic growth trend with volatility. Clustering analysis demonstrated that the energy efficiency of eastern China was significantly higher than that of central and western China. Additionally, the spatial gaps in China's construction industry narrowed, while the spatial agglomerations strengthened. This paper also found a significant positive agglomeration in the energy efficiency of the construction sector in neighbouring provinces of China in the space dimension. In conclusion, province-specific policies based upon temporal and spatial heterogeneity were proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the construction industry in China. • Game cross-efficiency is first used in construction sector. • Provincial energy efficiencies of construction sector are examined in 2005–2016. • Spatial distribution characteristics of energy efficiency are depicted. • Energy efficiency is assessed in four agglomeration areas. • Positive spatial agglomeration exists in energy efficiency of construction sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a market-based financial instrument, green credit is one of the key drivers for constructing green financial system. Green credit policy (GCP) can guide capital flow from high-energy consumption and high-pollution industries to technologically advanced emerging industrial sectors, so as to support the development of green industries and curb the emissions of polluting industries. In order to explore the extent to which the goal of green credit policy in China has been achieved, based on the micro data of China's listed enterprises from 2009 to 2017, this paper explores the impact of "Green Credit Guidelines" (2012 Guidelines) policy on the green transformation of heavy polluting industries (HPIs) by using a Difference in Differences (DID) and Propensity Score Matched-Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) models. We then analyze the mechanism between GCP and green transformation of HPIs and identify the heterogeneous effects of GCP on the green transformation of HPIs. The results show that the 2012 Guidelines significantly promote the green transformation of HPIs, through debt financing constraints and equity financing constraints. The effect of 2012 Guidelines on green transformation of small-scale and private enterprises is more pronounced. However, the positive effect of 2012 Guidelines on the green transformation of HPIs has not been sustained in the long term. Our study provides an insight for decision makers to manage green transformation of HPIs from the GCP perspective, by informing the economic consequences of GCP and pushing the industrial transformation towards green development. • Difference in differences is used to explore the impact of green credit policy on green transformation. • Debt financing constraint and equity financing constraint are main impact mechanisms. • The results are robust to a battery of robustness checks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the downward pressure of the economy, China's extensive economic growth that relies on factor input is difficult to sustain. Scientific analysis of the industrial restructuring and energy consumption has become the key to realizing China's economic growth from high-speed to high-quality. Based on the fully-modified least square method and panel vector error correction model, this paper explores the equilibrium relationship and Granger causality among the industrial restructuring, energy consumption and economic growth at aggregated and disaggregated levels. The results show that: (1) The effect of industrial structure rationalization on economic growth is higher than that of industrial structure upgrading. When emphasizing industrial structure upgrade, the more reliable industrial policy to achieve China's sustainable economic growth is to pay attention to the industrial structure rationalization, especially in western China. (2) The impacts of natural gas and renewable energy consumption on economic growth are much smaller than coal and electricity consumption; more energy policies should be designed to encourage clean energy development. • The industrial structure rationalization has highest contribution to the economic growth of eastern China, followed by central and western China. • There exists unidirectional causality from industrial structure upgrading to structure rationalizing in western China and bidirectional causality between them in central China. • Effects of natural gas and renewable energy consumption on economic growth are much smaller than coal and electricity consumption. • Unidirectional long-term causality from renewable energy to economic growth exist in each sub-region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petroleum refining is a technology complex, energy- and CO 2 emission-intensive industrial process, which is affected by the type and property of the crude oil. China has been the exploitation of crude oil to paraffinic most. This paper targets to quantify and evaluate the material or energy metabolism and environment loads of paraffin-based petroleum at refining process unit-level through the established petroleum flow and energy flow on the CO 2 emissions accounting framework, and explores energy conservation and CO 2 emission reduction pathways and policy implications, using a typical paraffin-based petroleum refining enterprise in China as a case. The results indicated that the crude oil from the inputs were fractionated in the atmospheric and vacuum distillation (AVD) unit, and its energy consumption and CO 2 emissions accounted for 14.38% and 13.2% of the total energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in the case study, respectively. With the transformation of petroleum refinery plant structure, fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), ketone benzol dewaxing (KBD), and delayed coking units dominated more energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. FCC unit was both the largest energy consumer and supplier, flue gas waste heat recovery efficiency of which was an important factor affecting energy conservation and CO 2 emission reduction for FCC unit and even enterprise. KBD unit records the largest energy and CO 2 emission intensities, which are 67.95 kgce/t product and 256.82 kgCO 2e /t product respectively, due to the high wax content of paraffin-based crude oil and the coal-dominated power generation structure. Based on these research findings, three mitigation policy recommendations were proposed, including the improvement of energy efficiency, optimization of energy consumption structure and product output structure. Carbon capture and storage can reduce CO 2 emission by about a third in the concentrated units of primary energy consumption (i.e. AVD, FCC, and DC). The results of this paper are key components of the life cycle assessment of the CO 2 emissions of petroleum fuels produced by domestic paraffin-based crude oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is great interest in measuring energy efficiency of China's industry using data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches. This paper proposes a new exponential transformation of undesirable outputs into desirable outputs as part of a DEA approach for calculating environmental efficiency by using all kinds of classic models. Different from the existing transformations, the exponential model should provide a more flexible way to deal with undesirable outputs, allowing the user to adjust the slope and distribution of the transformation function by setting a parameter. A strategy for maximizing the standard variance among the undesirable outputs after transformation is employed in this paper to determine the optimal parameter value for the exponential model. This paper empirically examines the energy performance of sectors in Chinese industry from 2010 to 2014 using the proposed DEA model and the results show that most sectors in Chinese industry have not performed well, especially the sectors concerned with energy extraction. Based on the results of the efficiency evaluation, this paper calculates how can each sector achieve efficiency improvement through energy conservation and emission reduction, and propose specific improvement target values for each sector accordingly. Image 106227 • Alternative approach is constructed to deal with undesirable output in DEA models. • A new transformation is provided to reflect the exponential relationship between desirable and undesirable outputs. • The slope and distribution of data under the new transformation function are controllable. • The new presented approach is applied to measure the performance of 38 industries in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PM 2.5 emissions has become a serious issue in China with enormous regional variation in economic development, resource endowment, and consumption patterns, which leads to great variations in regional PM 2.5 emissions and embodied PM 2.5 transfer among provinces. The spatial and temporal evolution pattern of PM 2.5 and its influencing factors are important issues in the study of air pollution emissions and control, which could help policy makers allocate emission responsibilities and reduction targets. Based on the perspective of final consumption, this paper uses a multiregional input-output model to estimate PM 2.5 emissions in 30 provinces in different years in China, applies a geographically weighted regression model to analyze different driving factors, and then analyzes the spatial heterogeneity of consumption-based PM 2.5 emissions. The results show that consumption-based PM 2.5 presents a significant reduction trend, although the separation of production and consumption areas of PM 2.5 emission is further intensified. The provinces with rich energy but relatively backward economies and manufacturing industries correspond to the primary net inflow of PM 2.5 , while the provinces with strong consumption ability and the most developed economies and industries present a net outflow of PM 2.5. Moreover, the slowdown of consumption growth and the improvement of consumption quality have a positive impact on PM 2.5 emission reductions. The optimization of industrial structure has a more significant impact on pollution control and haze reduction in the western region, while the improvement of energy utilization efficiency and rational use of construction land are more conducive to the reduction of consumption-based PM 2.5 emissions in the eastern region. From the perspective of temporal and spatial changes, significant spatial differences occur between regions. Energy consumption, environmental protection investment and construction land show the trend of " high value area diffusion and low value area reduction". • Explores the spatial distribution characteristics of PM 2.5 emissions in China from the perspective of consumption. • Consider and analyze the inter-annual variation of pollutant emission transfer. • Clarifies the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of influencing factors. • Emphasizes the importance of further optimizing influencing factors to reduce haze from the consumption end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green production and pollution control matter a great deal for resource conservation and sustainable growth. Today, Chinese firms are facing the challenge of upgrading the modes of production of industries with high energy consumption and high pollution to align with green initiatives. Financial systems can be designed to intervene in modes of production to control firms' pollution emissions, but the degree of impact and design mechanism are not clearly understood up to now. Thus, evaluating the policy impact of such transactions related to firm production is indeed an important contribution to existing knowledge about these topics. Using novel firm-level data with pollution and financial variables, we exploit the causal effect of bank loans on firms' abatement performance by using a natural experimental of a green loan policy shock in China. The results show that green loan policy has the positive effect of pollution abatement by state-owned and private-owned firms. This paper also investigates how green loan policy may promote green production through strengthening financial constraint and decreasing fixed and intangible investments. Furthermore, we find that political ties transfer financial burdens from firms with strong political ties to firms with weak political ties. In closing, we articulate the implications of our study of a green financing system for sustainable growth and cleaner production. Image 1 • Green loan policy significantly decreases high polluting manufacturing firms' pollution emission. • Green loan policy significantly facilitates high polluting manufacturing firms' pollution abatement. • Green loan policy performs well in state-owned and private owned firms, but not for foreign firms. • The policy increases the financial constraints and substitutes the fixed and intangible investments. • Political tie transits financial burden to those firms with less political tie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China's low-carbon development progress, industrial sectors play a crucial role in reducing CO 2 emissions and maintaining economic growth targets. Because the Chinese government is promoting industrial structure transformation for "high-quality economic development," the dominant CO 2 emitters have changed in recent years. It is important to identify the trend evolution of industrial CO 2 emitters and implement targeted measures and policies for CO 2 emission control at the sector level. In this paper, a hybrid input–output model is adopted to assess the situation and trend of sectoral CO 2 emissions from 2002 to 2017 in China. Demand-side drivers of sectorial embodied CO 2 emissions are discussed. Based on the embodied CO 2 emission decomposition of 27 sectors, a CO 2 emission evaluation index is defined for CO 2 emission ranking and key sectors for embodied CO 2 emissions are identified. For the key CO 2 emitters, we provide targeted policy suggestions for CO 2 emission mitigation from the perspective of trend evolution and index ranking. The results indicate the following. (1) 2015 is a turning point for China's CO 2 emission mitigation progress, because the previously increasing embodied CO 2 begins to decrease from 2015 to 2017. (2) Although the Construction sector stimulates a large amount of CO 2 emissions at present, the major driving forces of CO 2 emissions have gradually changed from infrastructure construction to the increasing demand of consumer goods, service industry, and export of technology-intensive products. (3) The CO 2 emission intensity of the Electric Power and Heat Supply sector has increased, and promotion of renewable energy consumption is urgently needed. (4) From the demand-driven aspect, tertiary industry has greater CO 2 emission potential than heavy industry. • A turning point of embodied carbon dioxide of China appears in 2015. • Most sectors have reached the peak of embodied carbon dioxide by 2015. • Construction, Other Service Industry and Manufacture of Machinery are the top three embodied carbon dioxide emitters. • Electric Power and Heat Supply sector should be concerned for high embodied carbon dioxide intensity. • Sectors with great carbon dioxide emission potential change towards tertiary and high-tech industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China launched seven emissions trading scheme (ETS) pilots in 2011, and a national ETS, at the end of 2017 in an attempt to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and drive its extensive energy transition in a cost-effective way. The Hubei province pilot ETS has operated since 2014, and an analysis of its effectiveness can provide lessons for the nascent national system. This paper disaggregates Hubei's industrial carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from 2005 to 2018 into economic scale, economic structure, energy efficiency, and energy structure effects using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI). Difference-in-difference (DID) models then assess the implementation effectiveness of this ETS, and its impact on the main influencing factors of the LMDI. Ten cities each in the Hubei and Hunan provinces are selected as treatment and control groups, respectively, in the DID models. Results show that the change in industrial CO 2 emissions is mainly due to the economic scale and energy efficiency effects. After the ETS implementation, the energy structure effect has a limited impact on emissions, while the economic structure effect makes a negligible contribution. Moreover, the implementation of the ETS has had little demonstrable impact on industrial CO 2 emissions, gross domestic product (GDP), energy consumption intensity, and CO 2 emission intensity. This lacking of impact is caused by the GHG monitoring capacity deficits of the local Development and Reform Commission, and irrational quota allocations. Effective supervision and quota allocation should be developed to increase the impacts of the ETS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental problems caused by the rapid popularization of agricultural mechanization and the increase of energy input in China's agricultural production have caused increasing concern. Based on the study sample of China's 30 provinces from 2000 to 2017, this paper estimates the energy-environment performance of agricultural sector using the global DEA method. Furthermore, it applied a panel TOBIT model based on censored data to empirically analyze the impact of popularization of mechanization on energy-environment performance in China's agricultural sector. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, the mean value of energy-environment performance is 0.1842, and the values of national and regional performance showed a downward trend in the sample period, indicating that most regions in China's agricultural sector did not perform well in terms of energy saving and pollution control. Secondly, the development of agricultural mechanization has a significant negative effect on energy-environment performance. This result confirms the fact that the regions with high penetration rates of agricultural mechanization usually have a low energy-environment performance. Finally, in regard to the control variables, energy price, reservoir infrastructure construction and agricultural industrial structure negatively affect energy-environment performance, while the agricultural labor force and agricultural mechanization service organizations have a positive effect on China's energy-environment performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, China's industrial sector is a primary source of both energy consumption and environmental pollution. This paper proposes a two-stage, network-based super data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to investigate the overall efficiency and eco-efficiency of the sub-stages in China's industrial system, including the production and three pollutant treatment stages, from 2004 to 2015. The results reveal that: (1) the industrial system's overall efficiency improved during the sample period. Specifically, efficiency has significantly improved in the production and wastewater stages, while no such improvements have been observed in the solid waste and waste gas treatment stages. (2) Both absolute and conditional β-convergences exist in the overall efficiency and sub-stage efficiencies. Over time, these types of efficiency gradually reached higher levels. (3) Although China has initially achieved positive results in improving its industrial system's overall efficiency, room for further improvement still exists. Among the industrial system's sub-stages, the waste gas treatment stage exhibits the highest efficiency, followed by the solid waste treatment stage, while the production and wastewater treatment stages have relatively low efficiency. • A two-stage network super DEA approach was proposed for industrial eco-efficiency. • The industrial system includes a production and three environmental treatment stages. • The industrial eco-efficiency of China has been improved during 2004–2015. • The performances of the industrial sub-stages are quite different. • Industrial eco-efficiency of China show distinct spatial characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to better achieve the goal of carbon emissions, this paper combined the theory of gravity center and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model to analyze the regional emission differences in China. Researches have shown that the difference in economic development levels between the eastern and western regions is an important factor that causes the shift of the center of gravity of carbon emission and its intensity to the west. In decomposition effects, the economic output effect has the largest contribution (56%) to emissions, and the energy intensity effect has the best effect in suppressing emissions. Except for some industries in the East and Central South of China, energy structure in other regions is still dominated by high-carbon energy. In the energy intensity effect, the suppression effects in the East and Central South of China have reached −83,440 Mt and −78,850 Mt respectively, while the Northeast and Northwest of China areas are not significant. Vigorously developing low-carbon technologies and promoting clean energy can effectively reduce carbon intensity. It is recommended to implement the policy of adapting to local conditions according to the current situation of the region, and gradually phase out high energy-consuming industries under the guidance of the government, so as to strive to implement the emission reduction target. • Industrial energy consumption difference between regions were analyzed for China. • Economic output has the largest effect to emission. • Center of gravity theory is used to analyze emission. • The adjustment of industrial structure has a lagging effect on carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and climate change have become a common concern to all countries in recent years. As an industrial sector with high energy consumption, the construction sector is facing enormous pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Given the continuous integration of the world economy, the construction sector in each country has extensive linkages with other sectors and countries. By using a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model and hypothetical extraction method (HEM), this paper aims to further decompose the CO 2 emission linkages of the global construction sector from consumption-based and production-based perspectives in order to identify the key sectors and regions related to global trade. Based on data from the World Input–Output Database from 1995 to 2009, the results indicate that the average internationalization ratios of the net backward linkage and the net forward linkage of the global construction sector increased from 37% to 46% and from 16% to 20%, respectively. The global construction sector mainly imported CO 2 emissions from secondary industry and the transportation industry. The construction sector exported small amounts of CO 2 emissions to other sectors both domestically and internationally. The CO 2 emission flows embodied in the international trade of the construction sector mainly occurred between the USA, China, Russia, Germany, and the Rest of the World (ROW). The construction sectors of the ROW imported the largest amount of CO 2 emissions from China (32.72 Mt). The largest exported CO 2 emission flow was between the construction sectors of the USA and the ROW, with a value of 0.091 Mt. Based on these findings, some corresponding countermeasures are suggested, such as optimizing international trade structures, establishing a mechanism for both consumers and producers to share responsibility for carbon emission reduction, applying new environmental materials, and upgrading industrial structures by reducing dependence on high-pollution sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive CO 2 emissions from energy combustion are the main cause of the global greenhouse effect, while the energy consumption in China's heating and power industries account for more than a half of national energy consumption. Based on this, to more accurately implement carbon emission reduction in heating and power industries, we studied the evolution and driving factors of the carbon emission structure in these industries between 2007 and 2015 from supply-side and demand-side dual perspectives. The results indicated that: (1) From the view of supply-side, the change of energy consumption structure led to the decline driving force of high-carbon energy (washed coal, crude oil, diesel oil and raw coal) and the rising driving role of low-carbon energy (coke oven gas, other gas and natural gas) for CO 2 emissions growth. Moreover, seen from the entire sample interval, 2007–2010 and 2010–2012 were the best period and the worst period for energy consumption optimization in China's heating and power industries, respectively. (2) From the view of demand-side, the expansion of industrial scale was the responsibility of the carbon emissions growth in China's heating and power industries, and the driving force of the second industry on carbon emissions growth was stronger than that of tertiary industry and primary industry. (3) However, since the direct consumption coefficient of heating and power energies in the tertiary industry and primary industry was lower than that of the secondary industry, the optimization of industrial structure was conducive to slowing the growth of CO 2 emissions in the China's heating and power industries on the demand-side. At last, this paper provides a theoretical analysis for the carbon emission structure of the heating and power industries, and a practical guidance for the industries to carry out more accurate and efficient emission reduction from both sides of supply and demand subsequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is an important tool to analyze the relationship between environment and per capital income. But two significant issues have been overlooked: why some points are above the EKC while others are below it? And what factors caused this phenomenon? Based on the data of 30 provinces in China over 2005–2016, this paper aimed to solve the above two questions. For the first question, we take the point on EKC as the theoretical pollution emission value of the different economic development stages; and use the difference between the theoretical pollution emission and the actual pollution emission under the same per capita income as the pollution emission efficiency. The difference value is used to reflect whether the pollution emission of the corresponding economic development stage of each region exceeds the standard and by how much. The result shows that most of the provinces with low pollution emissions concentrated in the north of the Yangtze River. Great progress has been made in China's pollution reduction work during 2015–2016. Then, for the second question, through the analysis of multiple mediating effects, we find that Environmental regulation, industrial transfer, proportion of output value of heavy pollution industry, energy consumption structure and energy using efficiency are important determinants to the pollution emission efficiency in Chinese province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial sector is a pillar for China's economy, improving the energy productivity is of great significance to mitigate the discrepancy between energy use and energy supply, as well as the economic development and environmental friendliness. This paper extended the previous decomposition method by introducing six new components: energy/output-oriented regional efficiency, energy/output-oriented scale economy, energy/output-oriented pure technical efficiency. These new factors can uncover the impacts of regional balance development, scale economy optimization, and resource allocation efficiency change on energy productivity. The main research results indicate that during the 2000–2016 period: (1) industrial energy productivity yield progressively increased, and the discrepancies of energy productivity in different regions were obvious: eastern region represented the best energy productivity performance, followed by the central and western regions. (2) Technological progress in both energy-saving and production were two principal contributors to energy productivity growth. Overall, the pure technical efficiency also promoted energy productivity, suggesting that resource allocation efficiencies were performed well in both the energy market and the output market. (3) By contrast, both the energy and output-oriented scale economy effect failed to promote energy productivity growth. Besides, the energy-oriented and output-oriented regional efficiency had opposite impacts on energy productivity: the former one had the inhibiting effects while the last one had the promoting effects. Finally, several relevant suggestions for policymakers were provided. • The impacts of policy-factors on industrial energy productivity was investigated. • The traditional decomposition method was extended by introducing six new factors. • The discrepancies of energy productivity were existed in China's different regions. • Technology progress contributed the most in energy productivity growth. • Pure technical efficiency was another promotor in facilitating energy productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving energy efficiency is important to ensure economic growth while conserving energy and reducing emissions. Based on the total factor energy efficiency of China's textile industry, this paper constructs a simultaneous equation model that includes the Tobit model, and empirically analyzes whether foreign trade affects energy efficiency in the textile industry as well as the mechanism of any such influence. The empirical results demonstrate positive feedback between foreign trade and energy efficiency in the textile industry, with imports impacting energy efficiency more than do exports. The foreign trade of textile industry is divided into import trade and export trade, which have different impacts on energy efficiency. Simultaneously, the results also confirm that R&D input, ownership structure and energy price significantly impact the energy efficiency of China's textile industry. • The foreign trade of textile industry significantly affects its energy efficiency. • The import trade impacts energy efficiency more than does the export trade. • Ownership structure significantly impact energy efficiency of textile industry. • Energy efficiency of textile industry has significant positive effect on foreign trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water and energy resource are inextricably linked. Rapid industrialization has led to severe water and energy shortage as well as environmental issues in China. In industrial sector, industrial production and wastewater treatment are two interdependent subsystems. Accordingly, understanding the internal operation performance of the two subsystems as well as assessing their coordination level are of great importance for sustainable water and energy usage. From the perspective of production efficiency, this paper aims to explore industrial water-energy nexus in China by proposing an interactive meta-frontier network DEA approach. The proposed approach is applied to assess the industrial water and energy utilization efficiency in the processes of industrial production and wastewater treatment from 2011 to 2015 in China. The results show that although eastern and central regions have high industrial production efficiency, most regions have relatively low wastewater treatment efficiency. In addition, the nexus degree of eastern region maintains a relatively high level and shows a stable improvement, while the rest two regions perform relatively worse. Comparing the central and western region, the industrial production technology of central region is better yet the wastewater treatment efficiencies of western region are higher, which results in higher nexus degree of western region. Based on the empirical results, policy implications are given in terms of national level, regional level and provincial level, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metallurgy industry that was crucial in developing Chinese economy also enhanced energy consumption and carbon emissions. This paper examines the impact of economic variables on carbon emissions from the metallurgy industry of China, where energy structure, energy intensity, carbon intensity, industrial structure, and labor productivity were utilized in analyzing carbon dioxide emissions within a quantile models framework. Quantile estimates unveiled varying effects of variables across spectrum of carbon emissions and averagely, a unit increase in the above economic variables will influence carbon emissions by 97.2 percent, 100.3 percent, 118.6 percent, 98.4 percent and 100.2 percent approximately. Across all quantiles, results showed that carbon intensity had the greatest impact on carbon dioxide emissions, then energy intensity, labor productivity, industrial structure, and energy structure, most but not all the industry was plagued by carbon intensity, while industrial scale should be minimized optimally, labor productivity should be improved too. Energy intensity is the most influencing factor, prompting an urgent need for technology advancement The uniqueness of the metallurgy industry must be considered when administering economic policies across the industry in China. The enhancement of clean energy technology and optimizing energy structure are crucial for carbon emissions reduction and a review of energy consumption by the industry to accommodate renewable energy is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive CO 2 emissions from energy consumption has become a key factor that results in environmental degradation and restriction on sustainable development of Chinese industries. In view of this, using the deposit and loan of energy capital, and energy exportation into consideration, we employed an energy consumption model and input-output analysis to study the structural carbon emissions from energy systems on the energy supply-side and from Chinese industries on the energy demand-side during 2002–2015. The results showed that on the supply-side, the China's majorization in energy consumption structure would result in a decline of proportion of carbon emissions from high-carbon energy (raw coal, diesel oil, combustion oil, etc.) and a rise in proportion of carbon emissions from low-carbon energy (natural gas, other gas, etc.) in energy systems. Moreover, the structure optimization of low-carbon energy was generally more robust than that of high-carbon energy, and 2012–2015 was the optimal period for energy consumption structure in the study interval. On the demand-side, intermediate use (enterprises) was still the driving factor for energy carbon emissions, although end-users (residents and government) had a limited driving effect on energy carbon emissions. Specifically, for industries with intermediate use of energy, the contributions of light industry, agriculture, construction, transportation, the service industry, and the power sector to carbon emissions exhibited a downward, fluctuating trend; The use of energy by heavy industry barely changed, and the use of energy by the chemical industry and fossil energy sector showed a rising, fluctuating trend. These data suggested that the change in industrial structure was closely related to carbon emissions from use of energy. Finally, this paper provides theoretical analysis and practical guidance for promoting the green and clean development of energy systems and for realizing the transformation and upgrading of low-carbon industry systems in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aluminium industry, with its traditionally high energy consumption, high emissions and high pollution, is facing increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions in China. Implementing effective policies and measures to promote carbon emissions reduction is of great importance. This study deploys the life cycle assessment (LCA) method to explore carbon emissions and CO 2 sources from aluminium manufacturing in China as well as a scenario analysis to evaluate the reduction potential and driving forces of carbon emissions in the industry. The evaluated scenarios include a new capacity allocation scheme, technological progress and energy structure optimization. The carbon emissions from the aluminium chain are mostly contributed by indirect emissions (more than 68%) from electricity generation. Significant regional discrepancies are observed in the total emissions and intensity, and a reasonable industry layout tends to transfer to the south and southwest areas from the perspective of the environmental pillar. Production output remains the dominant factors associated with total carbon emissions from manufacturing firms, such as the aluminium industry. Technological progress and the energy structure contribute to total reductions and carbon efficiency, although the former has a relatively limited scope for aluminium firms. This paper also shows that marginal carbon efficiency improvements are not very effective in lowering the total CO 2 emissions under the context of high output growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds an input-output model to analyze the energy and economic impacts of the 4.7 trillion-CNY investment projects of the " Three-Year Action Plan for Major Construction Projects of Transportation Infrastructure ", which was launched by the Chinese government in 2016. The results show that, from 2016 to 2018, the investment plan could increase China's GDP by 2.39%, 1.30%, and 1.24%, respectively, and the country's energy consumption by 3.98%, 2.35%, and 2.40%, respectively. The top five production sectors could contribute 55% of the GDP growth induced by the plan, and the top three sectors could contribute 83% of the energy consumption growth, indicating that the impact of the investment plan centers mainly on a limited number of sectors. From the view of supply chains, the 20 paths with the largest GDP contribution cover approximately 47% of the GDP growth induced by the plan, and the 20 paths that consume the most energy cover approximately 32% of the energy consumption growth. In these paths, the construction industry is the dominant demand sector, whereas the industry of nonmetallic mineral products, the industry of production and supply of electricity and steam, and the industry of smelting and pressing of metals are the primary supply sectors. In the future, the Chinese government should pay more attention to indirect energy consumption related to the construction industry, and policymakers will also need to set up more effective energy conservation policies for the upstream sectors of the construction industry, such as the sectors providing cement, glass, and steel. • Estimate the energy and economic impacts of China's three-year investment plan for transportation infrastructure. • Identify critical supply chains for the energy consumption and economic changes induced by the investment plan. • Propose several policy recommendations on reducing energy consumption in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial sector in China is energy-intensive and accounts for more than 60% of the nation's total energy consumption (demand). Narrating the story behind the growth of China's industrial energy consumption could help us understand the past and prepare for the future. This paper aims to investigate the factors affecting China's industrial energy consumption in the 21st century by using an extended production-theoretical decomposition approach (PDA) with considering the technological gap and scale of the economy effects. The new proposed decomposition framework includes four new factors, namely, the energy technological gap, the output technological gap, energy scale efficiency, and output scale efficiency. The results show that in the 21st century, the energy consumption of China's industry increased by more than one billion tons of standard coal. The expansion of the industrial economy is a dominant driver of China's industrial energy consumption, while potential energy intensity, energy technology, and output technology are the three largest energy-saving factors. In addition to the conventional factors, the newly proposed factors also have important effects on China's industrial energy consumption. Specifically, output scale efficiency is an energy-saving factor, while the energy technological gap, output technological gap, and energy scale efficiency are drivers of energy consumption. This suggests that China's industry is at the stage of returns to scale that is beneficial to output performance but harmful to energy performance. Meanwhile, the widening of the industrial technological gaps has negative impacts on China's industrial energy conservation. The proposed decomposition approach can provide information that cannot be obtained from traditional approaches and it can also be applied to many other cases for investigating feasible paths of energy-saving and emissions reduction. • A newly extended decomposition approach was proposed in this study. • The approach can quantify the effects of technological gap and scale economy. • Drivers of China's industrial energy consumption were investigated as a case. • The newly provided factors do have impacts on China's industrial consumptions. • It can provide information that cannot be obtained from traditional approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]