Environmental Efficiency Evaluation Of Regional Economic System Based On Material Flow Analysis

Throughout the history of the development of human society,a good environment has always been a luxury.Economic development has been always at high cost of abundant resources,beautiful environment since the beginning of mankind.The contradiction between resource consumption,environmental pollution and economic growth has been concerned by all the countries in the world.At the present stage of China,with the rapid development of social economy,the problemes of resource shortage and environmental pollution problems have become increasingly prominent.Economic sustainability is the pursuit of maximum economic efficiency and output at the expense of the minimum resource and environment.How to realize this kind of sustainable economic growth paradigm is what China is seeking recently.In this paper,material flow analysis(MFA)and environmental Kuznets curve(EKC)will be as tools to study environmental efficiency level of the 31 provinces and autonomous regions.The main content of this paper is divided into two parts.Firstly,introduction of the EU guidelines about the material flow(EUROPSTAT,2001,2002).Based on panel data of the actual conditions of the research area of 31 provinces and autonomous regions in China from 1995 to 2014,this paper will compare the material reduction indexes at the regional level in order to evaluate the level of economy on sustainable development and the corresponding environmental efficiency.After that,this paper will use the material reduction indexes to build the model of China's environmental Kuznets curve in order to empirically test the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve.The results obtained in this paper are as follows.Firstly,from the point of view of the total material requirement(TMR)of economy and environment system,the total material consumption of the 31 provinces and autonomous regions in China from 1995 to 2014 was greatly influenced by economic growth.80%of the total amount of material demand was hidden flow.The huge hidden flow will bring a heavy burden on the ecological environment.How to reduce hidden flow through technological progress will become the focus of regional environmental protection work.The increase in the proportion of the total material requirement of the imported materials indicates that the material exchange between the regions is more closely,and the economic development has made the relationship between the regions more closely.Secondly,from the point of view of the material output,the total amount of material output(TMO)is proportional to the total amount of material demand.Regional total material output from 1995 to 2014 grew rapidly.Relative to the total amount of material demand,its growth trend was more complex."Three wastes"constituted the main group of regional material output.Reducing "Three wastes"emissions will be beneficial to alleviate the pressure on the ecological environment and improve the quality of the environment.Third,from the perspective of intensity and efficiency,1995-2014 material consumption intensity(MCI)has obtained the astonishing growth,but compared to Japan,EU and other developed countries,indexes were still lower.This did not mean that China's sustainable development level has been alreadly beyond other countries.Rather it was that our people's material life level relative to the developed countries was still in a lower level.In order to further improve the level of people's material life,we should change the way of economic growth,promote industrial upgrading and realize green economy in the true sense.Fourth,from the point of view of material productivity(MP),China's 31 provinces and autonomous regions efficiency in the use of its resources have been an unprecedented increase,but China's eastern,central and western regions existed great differences.1995-2014 environmental efficiency(EEE)although has improved significantly,but since 2011,part of the provinces and autonomous regions' environmental efficiency growth have fluctuationsed,even in 2014 there was a decrease.If the downward trend continues,the result will be worried.Fifth,the elastic index of economic growth and environmental pressures is studied.The result shows:most of the time of 1995-2014,China's 31 provinces and autonomous regions were in "decoupling",which indicates that China's 31 provinces and autonomous regions of material consumption and waste emissions go gradually into a virtuous circle track.Finally,the empirical results show that there are cointegration relationships among the sequence of lnDMC?lnTMO?lnTMR?lnwaste?lnGDP?(lnGDP)2?(lnGDP)3.It means there is a long-term stable relationship between pollution and economic growth.The EKC curve of variable coefficient model with fixed effect is established,which shows that the EKC relationship between environmental indicators and economic growth in some provinces and autonomous regions has been realized.But there were still some provinces and autonomous regions' environmental indicators and economic growth in unsustainable relationship of the "U" type,"N" type or even the rise.Generally speaking,the efficiency of resource consumption in the 31 provinces and autonomous regions of China during the study period was significantly better than that of waste emission reduction.That is to say,the economic development has made the current stage of China more concerned about how to effectively use resources to produce more products and services.However,it is obviously not enough to reduce the discharge and reuse of waste.Only by transforming the existing linear material flow pattern,and establishing the industrial economic system of the closed cycle of the material energy,can China realize the coordinated development of the environment and the economy.The innovation of this paper is that it is the first time to use the material flow analysis method by the system in China's 31 provinces and autonomous regions in order to make the description and evaluation of the level of total material requirement(TMR),material output(TMO),material consumption intensity(MCI),material productivity(MP)and environmental efficiency(EEE).The results will be helpful to make a comparison on the resource utilization efficiency and waste emissions from the material input end and the material output end,and make the guidance for the formulation and adjustment of relevant policies.