Evaluation Of Green And Fair Human Development And Its Relation With Energy Consumption

Development is an eternal theme of human society.The World development is faced with severe challenges such as the widening gap between the North and the South,the shortage of resources,environmental pollution and so on.At the same time,the content of mankind’s pursuit of a better life has expanded from the only material welfare satisfaction,to a good ecological environment and a fair and inclusive social environment additionally.Nowadays,the concepts of"people-oriented","inclusive growth"and"sustainable development"have become a global consensus.The human development is an important reference index for global governance.The traditional evaluation system seldom considers the consumption of resources and environment and the fairness of development results assignment,so it is necessary to take environmental welfare and social equity into consideration when evaluating the level of human development.Energy is an important material base for human survival and development,and its development and utilization affect human life in every aspect.Energy consumption not only promotes the economic growth of a country and a region,supports social development and improves people’s living standards,but also affects the formulation and implementation of national energy conservation,emission reduction and environmental protection policies.Specifically,the influence mechanism of the energy consumption on the development of human society in a country or region and whether this influence has different characteristics spatially and temporally worth considering.However,the relevant research at home and abroad is very weak,so it is necessary to strengthen the study of the internal relationship between energy consumption and human development.According to the above analysis,this paper has done the following work:1)This study analyzed the historical process and current situation of human development in the world and the general characteristics of the world energy consumption in the traditional perspective based on the Human Development Index（HDI）and energy consumption data published by the United Nations Development Programme（UNDP）and relevant international organizations respectively so as to have a preliminary knowledge of the inner relationship between the two and lay a foundation for further analysis.2)Taking 65 major countries in the world as research subjects,material welfare,environmental sustainability and social equity are integrated into the evaluation index system,which includes four categories:basic human development（CHDI₁）,fairness-corrected human development（CHDI₂）,greenness-corrected human development（CHDI₃）and comprehensive corrected human deveopment（CHDI₄）.DP2 is used to evaluate the real level of human development and its changing characteristics in 65 countries from 1990 to 2014 in spatial and temporal dimension.3)Based on the panel data of 65 countries from 1990 to 2014,the relationship between energy consumption and human development is verified by panel unit root,Panel Cointegration and error correction-based causality test.Then the panel data model of energy consumption and human development indicators is established to reveal the effects of energy consumption on human development,in which the effects of geographical environment and economic effects are separated by virtual variables.The main conclusions are as follows:（1）The scores of 4 kinds of human development in the 65 countries are increasing with an extremely uneven feature during 1990-2014.The basic spatial pattern of CHDI₁ has not changed much,with the developed countries in Europe and the United States always in the forefront,while the countries in Africa and South Asia in the second place,and the absolute gap is still widening.The revised human development score decreased with the average CHDI₂ in 65 countries falling by 7.6‰compared with CHDI₁ in 2014.Taking the environmental impact into consideration,the results of human development have shrunk considerably.CHDI₃ is lower than CHDI₁ in the same period with an increasingly decrease rate.In 2014,the average CHDI₃ in 65 countries is 21.1%lower than CHDI₁.The dual revision of fair and green shows that results of human development have shrunk by more than 1/5.In the 1990-2014 years,the average CHDI₄ of 65 countries is 23.3%lower than that of CHDI₁.From 1990 to 2014,the score of basic human development in China increased rapidly,narrowing the gap with the average of CHDI₁ in 65 countries.The revision degrees of fairness,greenness and comprehensiveness of human development in China are all bigger than the average revision range in 65 countries,indicating that environmental and fair factors have become the necessary aspects for further improvement of human development in China.（2）There is a long-term balanced relationship between energy consumption and human development indicators in 65 countries.Energy consumption has a two-way causal association with per capita GDP and per capita consumption expenditure in the short term,but the association with education,health care and health will take a long time to show.And there is a two-way causal association between energy consumption and per capita carbon emissions in the long run and short term.（3）There exists great difference between individuals and time series of the base of human development.The higher the income level in a country,the higher the basic needs of the humanities development.Given to the environmental sustainability,the human development in Korea,Japan and Sweden have the best results.In terms of social inequality,it is serious in some low-income countries,uneven in development in middle-income countries is uneven and relatively balanced in socio-economic aspects in developed countries.The intercept between basic human development demand index and social equity index of energy consumption increases significantly over time,while the intercept of environmental sustainability index decreases significantly over time.（4）The marginal effects of energy consumption on human development vary among individual countries and time series.Energy consumption plays a significant role in promoting economic development,with a larger effect in countries with relatively low energy consumption especially.Considering the social equity,the marginal effect contribution of energy consumption to the economic development is significantly reduced in Latin American countries.Energy consumption has a higher effect on the adult literacy rate and the enrollment rate of colleges and universities in less developed countries than that of developed countries.Energy consumption has the smallest marginal contribution to the population proportion with improved sanitation and life expectancy at birth in less developed countries.the marginal effect of energy consumption on per capita carbon emissions is large in countries with low economic and technological level.The marginal effect of energy consumption on forest coverage is negative in some underdeveloped countries.The marginal contribution of energy consumption to human development is increasing slowly,however,the elasticity coefficient of energy consumption to carbon emissions per capita decreases slowly from the time series（5）Income level,regional temperature and energy abundance affect the relationship between energy consumption and human development.The degree of satisfaction of basic needs of human development is consistent with the level of national income.Considering social equity,the development base of high-income countries is still the best,and the one in low-income and middle-income countries is better than that of upper-middle-income countries.Low-income countries have the best sustainability,followed by high-income countries,upper middle-income level countries and lower middle-income level countries.The marginal contribution of energy consumption to the education level of high-income countries is greater than that of low-income countries,and less than that of lower middle-income level countries and upper middle-income level countries.The marginal effects of energy consumption on health care and life expectancy are most obvious in middle-income countries,followed by high-income countries,middle-income countries and low-income countries.The increase in energy consumption per unit in middle-income countries leads to the greatest increase in carbon emissions,followed by high income countries and low-income countries.The effect of energy consumption on forest coverage increases with the increase of national income level.Under the same conditions,countries with high temperature differences consume more energy to meet the basic human development needs of the same degree and this geographic effect are more obvious when the explanatory variables are GDP per capita,adult literacy,the proportion of people who have access to improved health facilities,and life expectancy at birth.Considering social equity,the marginal contribution of energy consumption to the balance of economic development in high temperature differences countries is still smaller than that in other three groups of countries.The increase of carbon emissions per capita in countries with high temperature difference is higher than that in countries with low and high temperature difference,but close to that in countries with low temperature differences.The marginal effect of energy consumption on forest coverage rate in countries with high temperature differences is smaller than that in countries with low and high temperature differences,and greater than that in countries with low temperature differences.Countries with the highest primary energy production have less marginal contribution of energy consumption to basic human development needs and social equity indicators than that in other three kinds of countries.In terms of environmental sustainability,the marginal contribution of energy consumption to carbon emissions and forest coverage rate in the countries with the best resource endowment is greater than that in the countries with the lowest resource endowment.Based on the above conclusions,this paper argues that poverty reduction and economic development are the primary development tasks for developing countries,while developed countries should pay attention to the improvement of energy efficiency and more responsibility for emission reduction.In addition,this paper puts forward three measures and suggestions of adhering to the scientific development,improving people’s livelihood,and promoting the transformation of the energy system in view of human development in China.