| The reduction of energy intensity is not only an important guarantee for China’s sustainable economic development strategy,but also a key to alleviate the pressure of environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.Through the analysis of current situation of energy intensity in China,it was found that the overall energy intensity in China declined in the period of 2000-2015.However,high energy intensity provinces(higher energy intensity than the national average)had lower energy intensity decline rate than the low energy intensity provinces(lower energy intensity than the national average),.Under this circumstance,the energy intensity gap among provinces will be widen.Therefore,China’s energy intensity reduction is facing two dilemmas:the widening energy gap among provinces("gap" dilemma)and the lower energy intensity reduction rate of high energy intensity provinces("catch-up" dilemmas).Energy intensity convergence indicates the regional energy intensities tend to be similar gradually over time.Exploring the energy intensity convergence in China will provide a vital theoretical support for solving the above dilemmas.In this dissertation,three well-established convergence methods,σ convergence,β convergence and dynamic distribution convergence,are used,to describe convergence process from the perspectives of "gap","catch-up" and "dynamic",respectively.It was found that the energy intensity in China satisfied β and dynamic distribution convergence,but not σ convergence.This result indicated that some high energy intensity provinces have successfully caught up with the low ones,and the overall provincial energy intensities converged to the lower energy intensity.However,a few high energy intensity provinces still had difficulty in energy intensity reduction.To solve the dilemma of "gap",this dissertation studied the sources of σconvergence of energy intensity in China,and aimed to find out the key provinces that result in the widening energy intensity gap.It was found that the main sources of promoting energy intensity convergence in China were Shandong,Fujian,Jiangsu and Jiangxi with lower energy intensity,while the main sources of impeding energy intensity convergence were Beijing,Shanghai,Liaoning,Heilongjiang,Hubei provinces with lower intensity and Inner Mongolia,Xinjiang,Hebei provinces with higher intensity.These results suggested that the divergence of energy intensity in China was mainly caused by the gap between the mentioned low and high energy intensity provinces.Reducing the energy intensities of Inner Mongolia,Xinjiang and Hebei are the key to solve the "gap" dilemma in China.The difficulties of energy intensity reduction in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang were the lagging economy and low energy efficiency.While the energy-intensive industrial structure was the difficulty of energy intensity reduction in Hebei.To solve the dilemma of "catch-up",this dissertation studied the factors which influences β convergence of energy intensity in China,and identified the key factors for the catch-up of high energy intensity provinces.The results showed that the catch-up of high energy intensity provinces mainly benefited from efficiency effect,and the structural effect had a relatively minor hindering impact on the catch-up.For efficiency effect,the secondary industry,as main contributor,promotes the convergence while the influence of tertiary industry’s efficiency effect impeded the overall convergence.Besides,the impact of the primary industry was not significant.For structural effect,the secondary industry was also the main contribution,while the influences of the primary and tertiary industries were not significant.It can be seen that,high energy intensity provinces not only need to improve the energy efficiency of the secondary industry further to catch up with the low ones,but should also pay attention to the energy efficiency of the tertiary industry.In addition,upgrading the industrial structure and avoidance of undertaking energy-intensive industries are also crucial for the catch-up of high energy intensity provinces. |
