Research On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Energy Efficiency In Western Region Of China

As the China’s major energy resource base, the energy development and utilization of the western region has made great contribution to the economic growth, at the same time, it also has brought very serious environmental pollution problems. With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, the western region has been confronted with serious constrains of energy and environment; it has already became an important bottleneck of the economic sustainable development. In order to solve the sharp contradiction between supply and demand of energy and the environmental pollution problems, we must develop new and renewable energy resources and improve the energy efficiency. Most scholars believe that environmental regulation has a certain impact on energy efficiency; however, there is not a unified conclusion about the relationship between environmental regulation and energy efficiency in academia. This paper mainly focuses on the research of impact of environmental regulation on energy efficiency and clarifies the logic relationship between environmental regulation and energy efficiency of the western region. The research can provide reasonable theoretical basis for making the reasonable energy and environmental policies. It has an important theoretical and practical significance for the regional coordination and sustainable development of energy and environment.The paper first defines the core concepts, such as energy efficiency and environmental regulation. Based on the analysis of relevant theories and clarification of relevant research literature both in domestic and abroad, the paper discusses the mechanisms and influences of environmental regulation on energy efficiency which can provide theoretical support for the full paper. The paper then analyzes the pressure of energy resources and environment, calculates the total factor energy efficiency and the level of environmental regulation in western region and tests the mechanisms of environmental regulation on energy efficiency with panel data. The paper also analyzes the specific effects of different regulation tools on energy efficiency of the western region and tries to find some coordination strategies about environmental regulation and energy efficiency. The main conclusions of the research are as follows:Firstly, environmental regulation exerts the impact on energy efficiency through direct and indirect transitive mechanisms. The transitive mechanisms of environmental regulation on energy efficiency contain the environmental cost, technological innovation, industrial structure and foreign direct investment. In order to make right judgments about mechanisms of environmental regulation on energy efficiency we need to consider the influences of various factors.Secondly, the western region is facing greater pressure on energy and environment at present. The energy efficiency is very low and the proportion of industry pollution is rising rapidly in the western region. The paper introduces the factor of industrial pollution into input-output analysis of production function to calculate the total factor energy efficiency based on the super efficiency DEA model, the result is that the total factor energy efficiency of the western region is gradually declining. So the energy efficiency of the western region still has much room for improvement.Thirdly, the level of environmental regulation is relatively low in the western region. Based on the summary of existing measure methods about environmental regulation, the paper establishes a relatively comprehensive evaluation index system. The calculation shows that the average environmental regulation composite index decreased firstly and then increased from 2000 to 2013.Fourthly, the environmental regulation has negative impact on the total energy efficiency of the western region. Looking from the transmission channels from environmental regulation to energy efficiency, we find that the environmental costs of enterprises increased significantly with increasing of the environmental regulation level in the short term, and the total factor energy efficiency of the western region will decrease. The environmental regulation has a positive effect on technological innovation of the western region, but the result of this experiment is not noticeable. The contribution of technological innovation to the total factor energy efficiency of the western region is negative. The increasing the level of environmental regulation will reduce the proportion of industrial output and industrial upgrading plays an important role in the improvement of the total factor energy efficiency of the western region. Increasing the level of environmental regulation reduces the scale of foreign direct investment, and the foreign direct investment plays a negative role in the improvement of the total factor energy efficiency of the western region.Finally, different environmental regulation tools have different effects on the total factor energy efficiency of the western region. The empirical research shows that different command and control policies make different contributions to the total factor energy efficiency of the western region. The market policy plays a positive role in the improvement of the total factor energy efficiency of the western region.The participation policy plays a negative role in the improvement of the total factor energy efficiency of the western region, but the result of this experiment is not noticeable. So, choosing the suitable environmental regulation tools is essential for the improvement of energy efficiency.Based on the above research conclusions, this paper concludes that the current level of energy efficiency and environmental regulation of the western region are relatively low, and the energy efficiency has much room for improvement. In order to improve the energy efficiency and protect environment, we are supposed to complete the environmental regulation system and ecological compensation system, optimize the industrial structure, enhance the public awareness of energy saving and emission reducing and improve the comprehensive utilization of energy efficiency.