Carbon Dioxide Emissions Efficiency Analysis on China's Coastal Areas: A Super-Efficiency SBM Model

The threats posed by global climate change, which are mainly caused by the emissions of greenhouse gases. And improving carbon dioxide emissions efficiency has been recognized as the most effective way to reduce the greenhouse effect and achieve sustainable development. A scientific evaluation of carbon dioxide emissions performance in China could not only provide valuable information for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions but also serve as a tool to estimate the effectiveness of relevant policy reforms. This paper adopts data envelopment analysis approach to evaluate the carbon dioxide emissions efficiency in China's coastal areas over the period of 2006–2014. Carbon dioxide is treated as undesirable output of energy consumptions. The proposed super-efficiency SBM model is used to estimate the carbon dioxide emissions efficiency with an annual cross-section of data. The results indicate the following in China's coastal areas: (1) Jilin province has the highest carbon dioxide emissions efficiency, while the efficiency in Hebei province is worst. (2) China's 10 coastal areas have similar trends in the variation of efficiency and in general the carbon dioxide emissions efficiency of China's 10 coastal areas slightly increased from 2006 to 2014. (3) The carbon dioxide emissions efficiency scores decrease when considering undesirable outputs except Fujian and Guangdong. This paper gives some policy recommendations on improving carbon dioxide emissions efficiency in China's 10 coastal areas.