Research On Influencing Factors Of Energy Intensity Based On Element Substitution In Liao Ning Province

Energy is not only the material basis of human activity, but also the importantstrategic resources of national survival and development. Especially after we enter intothe21st century, energy plays an important role, even irreplaceable status in a country’seconomic development. Energy supply for a long time and effective will determine thehealth and sustainable development of a country’s economic. After reform and openingup, especially after accession to the WTO, our country’s economy growth with asustained and rapid speed, the development of process in industrialization andurbanization is faster and faster, people’s living standard is increasing day by day, and italso has brought the huge energy consumption, especially non-renewable, and make ourcountry’s energy gradually facing more and more serious contradiction between supplyand demand. In addition, our country is influenced by the natural resources endowmentof much coal, less oil, even lack of the gas, and result in the coal became the majorenergy consumer in China, and large of energy wasted and exhaust gas emissionsbecause of the lower utilization efficiency of the coal, lead to the contradiction betweeneconomic development and environmental pollution is also increasingly prominent. Inthe long run, how to reduce energy intensity and environmental pollution, how toimprove energy efficiency and reduce the gap between energy’s supply and demand, notonly is the core of the energy economy research focus, but also is the key factor toimprove the international competitiveness and influence of a national. Therefore, how tosolve the gap between supply and demand of energy in our country, how to stop on theprecipice reduce environmental pollution, has become the important problem which weshould face in the rapid development of economy in our country. And increasing theenergy efficiency, developing the renewable energy, even using other factors ofproduction replaced the energy sources, all of above has become an inevitable choice forthe sustainable development of the state and societyEnergy intensity is one of the most commonly used indicators which used to reflectthe energy utilization efficiency, not only reflects the level of technology in energy usingof a country or a regional, but also reflect the economic benefits of energy utilization for a country or a region. After we entering the21st century, China’s demand for energy andraw materials and the dependence on import international market is becoming more andmore larger, the energy problem has become one of the factors that restrict the economicdevelopment of our country which should not be ignored. How to reduce energy intensityand how the influence factors of energy intensity effect on energy intensity had becomethe focus of academic research in China. Using data of Liaoning province, this paperintroduced the regulation of variables which using non-energy elements instead of energy,research the relationship that how energy intensity was effected by energy prices,industrial structure, technical progress and factor substitution, and attempts to answer twokey questions:(1) whether energy intensity could be effectively influenced by energyprices, industrial structure, technological progress and elements substitution;(2) weatherthe elements substitution could effectively regulate the influence factors of energyintensity and then indirectly affects energy intensity. Based on this, this papertheoretically analyzes how the energy prices, industrial structure, technological progressand element substitution effect on the energy intensity in Liaoning province, and analysesin energy intensity influenced by the various factors in statistical, and then, by using costfunctions beyond the logarithm to calculate the factor elasticity of substitution ofLiaoning province, and through regulating effect model of element substitution, usinghierarchical regression method, research the direct effect and adjust the effect of elementsubstitution in details.Research results show that: on the one hand, both element substitution and technicalprogress has significant impact on regulation of energy intensity, but the reaction ofenergy intensity is not sensitive to energy prices and industrial structure. The authorthinks that the reason might be (1) because the energy prices of our country is extremelylow which controlled long-term by state regulations, and could not reflect real marketsupply and demand, so the energy intensity didn’t regulated obviously by price changing(2) in the time range of research in this article is1990-2010, in this21years, thealteration of second industry and tertiary industry output value accounted for theproportion of total output value in Liaoning province was small. That is to say, theindustrial structure in Liaoning province has been changed very little in nearly20years,this special condition may lead to the difference between empirical analysis and theoretical research. On the other hand, energy prices, technical progress and industrialstructure could be regulated by element substitution in a certain extent, then couldinfluence the energy intensity indirectly. The regulative effect on labor instead of energyto technological progress was the greatest. Finally, in view of the above research results,summed up the relevant conclusions, and put forward relevant policy suggestions, hopeto inspire the government when making related policies.