Empirical Study On Energy Efficiency Evolution In China Based On Spatial Perspective

The industrialization and urbanization has brought increasing energy shortages,environmental pollution and other problems. Some developed cities in China in2013,occurred a wide area of haze pollution weather which caused more and more people’s concernon environment protection. Climate changing fields will still focus on energy conservationand emission reduction in the future. However, China’s resource endowments andinternational energy competitive landscape determines that coal-dominated energy structureremain unchanged within a short time. In the current technical conditions, how to improveenergy efficiency seems to be especially urgent and important.With the description of the Chinese energy efficiency spatial evolution during1990to2010, the paper attempts to discuss the factors that affect the energy efficiency evolution inthe spatial perspective. The main content is as follows: First this paper calculates the energyefficiency of29provinces based on total factor evaluation method and the method of DataEnvelopment Analysis. It analyses the spatial distribution, gravity center movement andspatial correlation. Then the spatial effect of energy efficiency is analyzed by Spatial DurbinModel during1990to2010.The panel model estimates the influencing factors of spatialspillover effect by both adjacency and geographic distance weight matrix, also discuss therelationship between spillover effect and geographical distance. The empirical results showthat:(1) Energy efficiency center in China changed from the low-longitude to higherlongitude over the years. The trend points out that the gap between China’s West and East isfar greater than that between the North and South. Energy efficiency in China decreases fromEast coast to the Midwest.(2) China’s regional energy efficiency is not randomly distributed, but there is a positivespatial aggregation which gradually increased since1990.(3) Based on spatial panel model with adjacency and geographic distance weight matrix,indicates that spatial spillover effects of five dimensions factors on energy efficiency areevidently. Except for the level of development, foreign investment, degree of openness,industrial structure and government influence have greater spatial spillover effects than thedirect impact. Spatial spillover effect is the main influencing factor for energy efficiency.(4) The spatial spillover effect of energy efficiency among regions will gradually vanishas the distance between regions increase. Its trend presents dual-platform. The spatial spillover effect is the strongest within280km. Above500km, the strength of spilloverdeclines rapidly.(5) Except for the government influence, level of development, foreign investment,degree of openness and industrial structure have greater spatial spillover effects in currentperiod and gradually weaken over time. Government influence has a promoting role onenergy efficiency, which is not immediately visible but needs for absorption and digestionprocess about two and three years later.