Energy Efficiency In China Regional Differences And Influencing Factors Of The Empirical Analysis

Energy constraints and environmental problems encountered in the development ofChina’s present economic have become apparent. Reduce unit GDP energy consumption islisted as one of binding targets in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan. To achieve the goal ofreducing energy consumption by16%needs joint efforts throughout. Improving energyefficiency is the inevitable choice for solving the problems of resources and environment.What is energy efficiency, at what levels of energy efficiency, energy efficiency differencesbetween regions, what are the factors affecting energy efficiency, this article tries to doempirical research on these issues. Based on the Panel data of China’s30provinces in1996-2010, this article uses SE-DEA (CRS) model to measure the national and regionaltotal factor energy efficiency and energy input redundancy. Using the method of σ andβconvergence to study the convergence of the national and regional total factor energyefficiency. Using Malmquist index to research the relationship between total factor energyefficiency and total factor productivity change, its decomposition factors. Based on Tobitmodel，this article gives the regression analysis of the influencing factors of total factorenergy efficiency.The main conclusions reached as follows.(1) Overall level of energy efficiency is still low in China, the differences of totalfactor energy efficiency between regions are very large. The distribution pattern in space isfrom West to East, from North to South in turn increase. The energy input redundant of thenation and four regions is large; potential for energy saving of the nation and four regionsis enormous.(2) Nationally, there is a clear convergence of σ andβconvergence, showing overalldifferences convergence of total factor energy efficiency. Regionally, there exists σconvergence in coastal region, middle region and Western region, which indicates that thegap between the provinces within the region is reducing. The internal differences ofNortheast region fluctuate dramatically and present instable situation. Absoluteβ convergence analysis displays that there exists convergence in coastal region, Northeastregion and Western region. Theβconvergence of middle region is not significant.(3) The total factor productivity of the nation and middle, Western regions is declining,while that of coastal region and Northeast region is increasing. Technical progress change,pure technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change all affect total factor energyefficiency positively, and the influence of scale efficiency change is greatest.(4) Industrial structure, degree of opening and energy price influent total factor energyefficiency positively. Government influence and energy endowment give total factorenergy efficiency a negative impact. Effect of ownership structure on total factor energyefficiency is not significant.