Dynamics and Inequalities in Energy Efficiency in China

As rapid economic growth in China in recent decades, the quality of economic growth through improvement of energy efficiency has attracted great attention. This paper evaluated energy efficiency of 29 provinces in China between 2000 and 2016 based on a global non-radial directional distance function. Moreover, the dynamics of energy efficiency were investigated using the non-radial global Malmquist-type efficiency index. The paper also sheds light on the evolution of inequalities in energy efficiency by decomposing interprovincial inequality into its within-region and between-region components. The findings of the study are as follows. First, the national energy efficiency was 0.49 in 2016, which indicated that 51% improvement could be made to reach the global technology frontier. Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong and Guangdong had the best energy efficiency in 2016, while Ningxia and Xinjiang had the lowest performance. Second, the national annual growth rate of energy efficiency was 3.4% between 2011 and 2016, which was a positive sign of energy efficiency improvement. Shandong made the biggest improvement in energy efficiency from 2011 to 2016, with 26.2% annual growth rate. Lastly, within-region inequality saw a decreasing trend after 2010 and was overtaken by between-region inequality in 2016.

Navigating Chinese cities to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030

Achieving the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals(SDGs)in China largely depends on the transition of cities toward sustainable development.However,significant knowledge gaps exist in evaluating the SDG index at the city scale and in understanding how to simulate pathways to achieve the 17 SDGs for Chinese cities by 2030.This study aimed to quantify the SDG index of 285 Chinese cities and developed a forecasting model to simulate the performance of each SDG in each city until 2030 using varied scenarios.The results indicated that although the SDG index in Chinese cities increased by 33.97%during 2005–2016,Chinese cities,which continued their past paths,achieved an average of only five SDGs by 2030.To promote the joint achievement of all SDGs,we designed different paths for all SDGs of each of the 285 cities and simulated their SDG index until 2030.Under the scenarios,216 Chinese cities(75.79%)could achieve 9–13 more SDGs in 2030 and the overall SDG index can improve from 74.57 in 2030 to 97.49(target score 100)by adopting more intensive path adjustment.We lastly determined a cost-effective path for each SDG of each city to promote joint achievement of all SDGs by 2030.The proposed simulation model and cost-effective path serve as a foundation for other countries to simulate SDG progress and develop pathways for achieving SDGs in the future.