Analysis On China’s Agricultural Energy Environmental Efficiency

Agricultural production is related to people’s livelihood and plays a fundamental decisive role in the development of economy and society.With the popularization of agricultural modernization and mechanization,China’s agricultural development has experienced the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture,and the use of mechanical energy,chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural production is also increasing,accompanied with the increasing demand for products of upstream industrial chains.This paper used the multi-regional input-output model to evaluate the agriculture complete energy consumption and carbon emissions of 30 provinces in China and compared with direct energy consumption and carbon emissions,respectively.Based on the data envelopment analysis U-SBM and S-U-SBM model,the agricultural complete energy environmental efficiency and direct energy environmental efficiency was also evaluated,with the corresponding energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentials analyzed systematically.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Energy consumption and carbon emissionsAgricultural energy consumption and carbon emissions in 30 provinces showed an overall upward trend;the spatial distribution presented the characteristics: the central > the east > the west.On a regional scale,the energy consumption and carbon emissions in Central China were relatively high,and the northwest and South China were relatively low.The provinces with higher energy consumption and carbon emissions included Shandong,Hebei,Heilongjiang,Sichuan,Henan,Hubei,Hunan,Xinjiang and so on,most of which were the main grain producing areas in China.The provinces with lower energy consumption and carbon emissions included Qinghai,Ningxia,Beijing,Tianjin,Shanghai and Hainan,mostly concentrated in the northwest or eastern coastal areas.Overall,the complete energy consumption in most provinces was 2-6 times more than the direct energy consumption,and the complete carbon emissions were mostly 2-8 times more than the direct carbon emissions.The gap between complete energy consumption,carbon emission and direct energy consumption and carbon emission of Shandong and Hebei was particularly prominent.(2)Direct and complete energy environmental efficiencyOn the whole,except for several provinces in specific years such as Chongqing,Zhejiang and Fujian,the direct energy environmental efficiency of the provinces in most years was greater than its complete energy environmental efficiency,with an upward interannual trend generally.The spatial distribution of direct energy environmental efficiency and complete energy environmental efficiency of each regions were relatively stable,showing that the eastern was obviously higher than the central and western regions.The direct energy environmental efficiency and complete energy environmental efficiency in East and South China was relatively high,and the northwest region was relatively low.The provinces with higher value of direct energy environmental efficiency and complete energy environmental efficiency included Shanghai,Beijing,Jiangsu,Fujian,Guangdong and so on,which were mostly concentrated in the eastern coastal areas.The direct energy environmental efficiency and complete energy environmental efficiency of Gansu,Ningxia,Shanxi was relatively low,mostly in the northwest and inland regions.(3)Energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentialsOverall,the average level of direct energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentials of 30 provinces varied more smoothly with time at the beginning of the study,while with a large increase in 2012-2015.The average complete energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentials generally declined by year.The spatial distribution pattern of energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentials were relatively stable,showing that the central and western regions were relatively high,the eastern regions was the lowest,and the northern region was larger than the southern region.Among the seven major regions,the energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentials of East and South China were relatively low,and the Northwest and North China were relatively high.Specific to the provincial level,Shanghai,Jiangsu,Fujian,Guangdong had less energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentials.Provinces including Ningxia,Gansu,Inner Mongolia,Shanxi and some other provinces had larger energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction potentials.According to the results above,this paper put forward some suggestions from three aspects: strengthening energy conservation and emissions reduction in the upstream industrial chains of agriculture industry,implementing targeted regional emissions reduction policies and setting reasonable regional energy conservation and emissions reduction targets,so as to improve agricultural energy efficiency and economic benefits of agricultural production,mitigate climate change caused by agriculture and develop sustainable agriculture.