Research On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Energy Efficiency And Rebound Effect

With the development of industrialization,China is facing serious problems of energy constraints and environmental pollution.In order to achieve sustainable economic development,Chinese government attaches great importance to energy conservation and ecological environmental protection.It has always been a hot issue in academia that reduce energy consumption and pollution through effective environmental regulation and energy policies.From the Related research,it is generally believed that improving energy efficiency through technological innovation is the most effective and environmentally friendly way.However,there is evidence that energy efficiency improvements do not achieve the expected energy savings,As the energy that is expected to be saved is possibly offset by greater energy demand from mechanisms such as income effects,substitution effects and output effects.Therefore,to solve resource constraints and environmental pollution problems,energy rebound effect must be taken seriously.However,the relevant energy conservation and emission reduction measures of environmental regulation will inevitably affect the efficiency of energy use,and thus have an impact on the rebound effect of energy.What is the impac of environmental regulation on energy efficiency and energy rebound effect? Related research is still a little weak,and no consensus has been reached.Based on the Related research,this paper evaluates the level of environmental regulation,total factor energy efficiency and energy rebound effect of every province in China from 2000 to 2017,moreover discusses the impact of environmental regulation on energy efficiency and energy rebound effects from theoretical and empirical perspectives.Main conclusions as follows:First,from the measure result of environmental regulation and total factor energy efficiency,it can be concluded tha the overall level of energy efficiency in China is quite different in different regions and at a lower level,it has generally declined since 2000.Moreover,from the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index,China’s energy efficiency level is mainly dependent on technological progress.In the future,China still has a lot of energy-saving space,and relying on technological progress is still an effective means to achieve energy conservation.In addition,from the results of the measure result of the Comprehensive environmental regulation indicator,it can be concluded that the regulation is also quite different in different regions.The comprehensive regulation level of eastern coastal regions is generally greater than the central and western regions.Second,from the research on the Impact of Environmental Regulation on Energy Efficiency,In theory,it can be concluded that the actual energy efficiency is different under different environmental regulation,enen if the energy consumption is same.that is,environmental regulation has an impact on the energy efficiency of enterprises,and different regulation methods have different effects on energy efficiency.Moreover,Suitable environmental regulation is also one of the strategies to improve energy efficiency.The empirical results of the PVAR(panel vector autoregressive)method based on endogenous perspective show: it can be concluded that the command-controlled environmental regulation has a positive and stronger impact on energy efficiency.The economic incentive-type environmental regulation also have a positive effect on energy efficiency,but the positive impact intensity is not large,the voluntary awareness environmental regulation is statistically insignificant and negatively impacted.but from the variance decomposition in terms of the long-term cumulative contribution of the environmental regulation to energy efficiency growth,the contribution of voluntary awareness environmental regulation is higher than the other two types.The empirical analysis is basically consistent with the theoretical analysis.In The future environmental regulation should be developed from command control to diversification of economic incentives and voluntary awareness.Third,from the results of energy rebound based on the endogenous economic growth theory and the spatial spillover effect between regions,it can be concluded that energy rebound effect has been “over-fire t” effec in both short-term and long-term and presents a trend of rising first and then falling since 2000.This can be the basic reason why China’s energy efficiency is increasing but energy consumption continues to rise.In addition,China’s energy rebound effect also shows a large regional difference,with the largest rebound effect in the west,followed by the east and the middle.Fourth,from the research on the Impact of Environmental Regulation on rebound effec,In theory,it can be concluded that the short-term energy rebound effect is mainly related to the adjustment direction of energy elements.In the long run,all factors are freely adjustable.the impact of environmental regulation on energy rebound is not Certainty Under the influence of the substitution of energy and non-energy elements,the output mechanism of enterprises and the market price adjustment mechanism.The empirical results based on the panel smooth transfer model(PSTR)method show: when the industrial structure and energy consumption structure as the conversion variables.Different environmental regulation has different effects on the energy rebound effect along with the adjustment of industrial structure and energy consumption structure.First,When the industrial structure is used as a conversion variable,the command-controlled environmental regulation first aggravates the rebound of energy,and then turns into inhibition.Due to the relevant market mechanism is not perfect,the economic incentive-type environmental regulation generally exacerbates the energy rebound,but this trend has been significantly weakened with the optimization of industrial structure.Second,When the energy consumption structure is used as a conversion variable,the commandcontrolled and economic-incentive environmental regulations generally exacerbate the energy rebound,but with the continuous adjustment of the energy consumption structure.The regulation effect gradually appeared,and the aggravating effect gradually weakened.