Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions allocation plays a fundamental role in determining reduction responsibility at economy level or emission permits at firm level. Past decades have seen the development ...and applications of various methods for CO2 emissions allocation. This paper provides a literature review of CO2 emissions allocation with emphasis on the evolution of allocation methods used. It begins with a summary of the most popular allocation principles and criteria that lay a foundation for the development of allocation methods. We then classify the existing allocation methods into four groups, namely indicator, optimization, game theoretic and hybrid approaches. The main features and findings of past studies are identified and summarized. While the fairness principle prevails in earlier studies, the efficiency principle has been found to receive increasing attention recently. We also present a comparison of the empirical results based on ten popular indicator methods to show how indicator choice affects the allocation results. Issues related to selecting appropriate methods in CO2 emissions allocation are finally discussed. Further research may be carried out to strike a balance between fairness and efficiency so that the allocation results become more widely acceptable and economically feasible.
Global awareness on energy security and climate change has created much interest in assessing economy-wide energy efficiency performance. A number of previous studies have contributed to evaluate ...energy efficiency performance using different analytical techniques among which data envelopment analysis (DEA) has recently received increasing attention. Most of DEA-related energy efficiency studies do not consider undesirable outputs such as CO2 emissions in their modeling framework, which may lead to biased energy efficiency values. Within a joint production framework of desirable and undesirable outputs, in this paper we construct both static and dynamic energy efficiency performance indexes for measuring industrial energy efficiency performance by using several environmental DEA models with CO2 emissions. The dynamic energy efficiency performance indexes have further been decomposed into two contributing components. We finally apply the indexes proposed to assess the industrial energy efficiency performance of different provinces in China over time. Our empirical study shows that the energy efficiency improvement in China's industrial sector was mainly driven by technological improvement.
► China's industrial energy efficiency is evaluated by DEA models with CO2 emissions. ► China's industrial energy efficiency improved by 5.6% annually since 1997. ► Industrial energy efficiency improvement in China was mainly driven by technological improvement.
► We employ a slacks-based DEA model to estimate the energy efficiency and shadow prices of CO2 emissions in China. ► The empirical study shows that China was not performing CO2-efficiently. ► The ...average of estimated shadow prices of CO2 emissions is about $7.2.
This paper uses nonparametric efficiency analysis technique to estimate the energy efficiency, potential emission reductions and marginal abatement costs of energy-related CO2 emissions in China. We employ a non-radial slacks-based data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for estimating the potential reductions and efficiency of CO2 emissions for China. The dual model of the slacks-based DEA model is then used to estimate the marginal abatement costs of CO2 emissions. An empirical study based on China’s panel data (2001–2010) is carried out and some policy implications are also discussed.
•A systematic literature review on carbon-constrained operations models is provided.•Carbon constraints are categorized into policy-driven, market-driven, and nature-driven ones.•Three genres of ...business strategies and ten types of operations models are classified.•A conceptual analyzing framework for making carbon-constrained firm decisions is given.•Potential future research directions are identified.
This paper presents a systematic literature review on carbon-constrained operations models. First, carbon constraints are defined and categorized into three genres: policy-driven, market-driven, and nature-driven. Second, business strategies for fulfilling carbon constraints are summarized and classified into three main groups: internal emissions abatement, collaborative emissions abatement, and carbon compensation. Subsequently, ten specific types of carbon-constrained operations models are studied in support of these business strategies. Lastly, the research trend is analyzed and a conceptual studying framework is proposed. The results show that the policy-driven carbon constraints are the primary carbon considerations in operations models, with the emissions trading scheme and the carbon tax taking first and second place, respectively. In addition, the focus of carbon-constrained operations models evolves from short-term to long-term strategies, from internal to collaborative abatement strategies, and from simple to more practical models. From the carbon constraint modeling perspective, future studies regarding the coexistence of multiple carbon constraints and their interactive effects might have interesting results. From the business strategy perspective, the collaborative emissions abatement models, especially horizontal co-opetition mechanisms, remain to be further explored.
This paper examines the causal relationships between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption and real economic output using panel cointegration and panel vector error correction modeling ...techniques based on the panel data for 28 provinces in China over the period 1995–2007. Our empirical results show that CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth have appeared to be cointegrated. Moreover, there exists bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and energy consumption, and also between energy consumption and economic growth. It has also been found that energy consumption and economic growth are the long-run causes for CO2 emissions and CO2 emissions and economic growth are the long-run causes for energy consumption. The results indicate that China's CO2 emissions will not decrease in a long period of time and reducing CO2 emissions may handicap China's economic growth to some degree. Some policy implications of the empirical results have finally been proposed.
► We conduct a panel data analysis of the energy–CO2–economy nexus in China. ► CO2 emissions, energy use and economic growth appear to be cointegrated. ► There exists bidirectional causality between energy consumption and economic growth. ► Energy consumption and economic growth are the long-run causes for CO2 emissions.
This paper proposes a parametric frontier approach to estimating economy-wide energy efficiency performance from a production efficiency point of view. It uses the Shephard energy distance function ...to define an energy efficiency index and adopts the stochastic frontier analysis technique to estimate the index. A case study of measuring the economy-wide energy efficiency performance of a sample of OECD countries using the proposed approach is presented. It is found that the proposed parametric frontier approach has higher discriminating power in energy efficiency performance measurement compared to its nonparametric frontier counterparts.
This paper proposes a meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function to model energy and CO2 emission performance in electricity generation. This approach allows for the consideration of the ...group heterogeneity of electricity generation, non-radial slacks, and undesirable outputs simultaneously. We extend several standardized indices to measure total-factor energy efficiency, CO2 emission performance, and technology gaps in electricity generation. We estimate the potential reductions in energy use and CO2 emissions under different technology assumptions. We conduct an empirical analysis of fossil fuel electricity generation in Korea by using the proposed approach. The results indicate that coal-fired power plants show higher levels of total-factor energy efficiency and CO2 emission performance than oil-fired ones. Under the meta-frontier technology assumption, coal-fired power plants show a smaller technology gap than oil-fired ones. This suggests that the Korean government should promote technological innovation to reduce technology gaps for oil-fired plants, thereby improving energy and CO2 emission performance and meeting emission reduction targets in the electricity generation industry.
► Meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function is proposed. ► Energy and CO2 emission performance and technology gap indices are developed. ► An empirical study on Korean fossil-fuel power plants is conducted. ► Coal-fired power plants has smaller technology gap than oil-fired ones.
•China’s regional efficiency studies using data envelopment analysis are reviewed.•The main features of 46 studies published in 2006–2015 are summarized.•Six models are compared from the perspective ...of methodology and empirical results.•Empirical study of China’s 30 regional efficiency assessment in 1995–2012 is presented.
The use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) in China’s regional energy efficiency and carbon emission efficiency (EE&CE) assessment has received increasing attention in recent years. This paper conducted a comprehensive survey of empirical studies published in 2006–2015 on China’s regional EE&CE assessment using DEA-type models. The main features used in previous studies were identified, and then the methodological framework for deriving the EE&CE indicators as well as six widely used DEA models were introduced. These DEA models were compared and applied to measure China’s regional EE&CE in 30 provinces/regions between 1995 and 2012. The empirical study indicates that China’s regional EE&CE remained stable in the 9th Five Year Plan (1996–2000), then decreased in the 10th Five Year Plan (2000–2005), and increased a bit in the 11th Five Year Plan (2006–2010). The east region of China had the highest EE&CE while the central area had the lowest. By way of conclusion, some useful points relating to model selection are summarized from both methodological and empirical aspects.
Improving energy efficiency and productivity is one of the most cost-effective ways for achieving the sustainable development target in China. This paper employs non-radial directional distance ...function approach to empirically investigate energy efficiency and energy productivity by including CO2 emissions as an undesirable output. Three production scenarios, namely energy conservation (EC), energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER), and energy conservation, emission reduction and economic growth (ECEREG), are specified to assess China's energy efficiency and productivity growth during the period of Eleventh Five-Year Plan. Our empirical results show that there exist substantial differences in China's total-factor energy efficiency and productivity under different scenarios. Under the ECEREG scenario, the national average total-factor energy efficiency score was 0.6306 in 2005–2010, while the national average total-factor energy productivity increased by 0.27% annually during the period. The main driving force for energy productivity growth in China was energy technological change rather than energy efficiency change.
•China's regional energy efficiency and productivity in 2005–2010 are evaluated.•Three production scenarios are considered.•Non-radial directional distance function with CO2 emissions is employed.•Technological change is the main driver for China's energy productivity growth.
