Study On Energy Environmental Efficiency And Energy Rebound Effect In Road Transport

Energy consumption has been continuing to climb with the rapid economic development.Chinese government has been confronted with unprecedented pressure on energy conservation and emission reduction,which is under the trend of global development of low-carbon economy.Highway transportation is not only the department closest to people’s life and social development,but also the department with the largest energy consumption and CO₂ emission in the transportation industry,which has become the focus of energy conservation and emission reduction in the transportation industry.The research on highway transportation energy environmental efficiency and energy rebound effect has crucial theoretical guidance for promoting energy saving and emission reduction of highway transportation,which is conducive to better guide the construction of low-carbon transportation.In this paper,the super-efficiency DEA model was first used to calculate the energy environmental efficiency of road transport in various provinces from 2002 to2016.Then,we have constructed a spatial durbin model and a spatial error correction model to research the energy rebound effect of road transport.The results show that:firstly,there are remarkable regional and temporal differences in energy environmental efficiency of road transport.The energy and environmental efficiency of highway transportation was promoted by foreign investment,while the proportion of the secondary industry and the proportion of urban population had an adverse impact on the energy and environmental efficiency of highway transportation.Secondly,the value of energy rebound effect is low while the elasticity of energy services to energy and environmental efficiency has been used as a measure of energy rebound effect.The energy rebound effect of passenger transport and freight transport is 9.16%-10.14%and23.44-25.8%respectively in long term.In short term,the energy rebound effect of passenger transport is not significant,while that of freight transport is 13.72%.The energy saving brought about by the improvement of energy and environmental efficiency has not been substantially offset.Thirdly,taking the elasticity of energy services to fuel prices as a measure of energy rebound effect,the short-term energy rebound effects of passenger transport and freight transport are68.22%and 71.68%respectively.Meanwhile,we have found the spatial spillover effect of energy rebound effect noteworthy:in long term,the fuel price of neighbouring provinces decreases by 1%,passenger and freight turnover increases by0.4365%and 0.68%respectively.In short term,for every 1%drop in fuel prices in neighbouring provinces,passenger and freight turnover increased by 0.4119%and0.6977%respectively.Therefore,the policy focus should be transferred from adjusting fuel prices to improving energy environment efficiency for road traffic energy conservation and emission reduction.Effectively promote the level of opening up by utilizing foreign investment reasonably,which could promote the introduction and dissemination of advanced science and technology coming from foreign developed countries efficiently.Expand other means of transportation and facilities in areas with higher proportion of population in urban.Make people less sensitive to lower fuel prices through raising residents’income.We will promote the utilization of long distance energy-saving vehicles and vans to reduce the spillover effects of energy rebound effects.What the main innovations of this paper are:A complete system integrating the road traffic energy environmental efficiency and energy rebound effect together has been constructed,which has verified whether the energy saving brought by the improvement of energy environmental efficiency is greatly offset by the energy rebound effect directly.Not only long-term energy rebound effect but also short-term energy rebound effect of highway traffic has been researched through constructing a Spatial Durbin model and a spatial error correction model respectively.The spatial spillover effect of energy rebound effect in road transportation has been explored by us.It has enriched the research method system and also research perspective of energy rebound effect,which has provided theoretical guidance and policy recommendations for energy conservation and emission reduction in highway transportation.