AUTHOR=Pan Wenyan , Gulzar Muhammad Awais , Wang Zongjun , Guo Chensi TITLE=Spatial Distribution and Regional Difference of Environmental Efficiency Based on Carbon Reduction Goals: Evidence From China JOURNAL=Frontiers in Environmental Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.816071 DOI=10.3389/fenvs.2021.816071 ISSN=2296-665X ABSTRACT=

China will strive to achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutralization by 2060 cooperating with the system dominated by carbon intensity control and supplemented by total carbon emission control. This paper analyzes the environmental efficiency index of China; the empirical results show that the average growth rate is 4.5% from 2006 to 2017. A further decomposition of changes on scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency indicates that the pure technical efficiency maintains a long-term growth, and scale efficiency shows a fluctuant tendency. The abovementioned changes show that various methods in China such as industrial structure adjustment and promotion of the development of high and new technologies have obtained a certain effect. From the perspectives of regional differences, the average changes of environmental efficiency in eastern, central, and western regions as well as most of provinces and cities are all on the increase. On the space layout, a trend has been presented that the average changes in central regions exceed those in eastern regions, while the average changes in western regions are comparatively lower than those in eastern regions.