• Energy Research

Abstract The rapid increase in per capita energy consumption is likely to be an important factor affecting the sustainable development of China's economy. In this study, the convergence of per capita energy consumption, which is an important inherent characteristic of China's energy consumption, is investigated using panel data for the period 1994–2014 for 30 Chinese provinces. To control for the potential spatial dependence in energy consumption per capita and introduce dynamics, appropriate spatial dynamic econometric models are employed. The empirical results indicate that there are both absolute and conditional β-convergences in per capita energy consumption across provinces. In addition, there is also evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita energy consumption and per capita GDP. Therefore, per capita energy consumption would increase when economic development is relatively low. However, per capita energy consumption may decrease after a threshold level of economic development is reached. Among the factors that potential influence provincial energy consumption, the ratio of secondary industry value-added to GDP and the spatial correlation of energy consumptions in neighboring provinces are positively related to energy consumption per capita, while population density and per capita foreign direct investment do not affect energy consumption per capita significantly.

Durante la última década, los principales países del sur de Asia (Pakistán, India y Bangladesh) han utilizado efectivamente la electricidad eólica para evitar futuras dificultades energéticas. Sin embargo, la industria eólica está siendo influenciada por una amplia gama de factores. El objetivo de este estudio es desarrollar un modelo de cadena de valor para la industria de la energía eólica del sur de Asia, analizar los factores internos y externos para analizar la viabilidad de la condición actual y la hoja de ruta futura para fomentar el sector de la energía eólica mediante la adopción del modelo de Fortalezas, Debilidades, Oportunidades y Amenazas (FODA). En primer lugar, se desarrolló un nuevo modelo de cadena de valor para la industria eólica. En segundo lugar, identificamos los factores sociales, económicos y ambientales, que influyen significativamente en la competitividad y el desarrollo de la industria eólica a través de un examen claro y preciso de las fortalezas, debilidades, oportunidades y amenazas en la perspectiva del sur de Asia. Se identificaron y analizaron un total de 19 factores. Los resultados de la investigación indican la situación actual y las proyecciones futuras de la industria eólica en un entorno competitivo. Finalmente, sugerimos medidas políticas esenciales para estabilizar el crecimiento de la industria eólica. Este estudio servirá como punto de referencia para el desarrollo constante de la industria de la energía eólica y hacia un sur de Asia seguro y sostenible. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les principaux pays d'Asie du Sud (Pakistan, Inde et Bangladesh) ont efficacement utilisé l'électricité éolienne pour éviter de futures difficultés énergétiques. Cependant, l'industrie éolienne est influencée par un large éventail de facteurs. L'objectif de cette étude est de développer un modèle de chaîne de valeur pour l'industrie éolienne sud-asiatique, d'examiner les facteurs internes et externes pour analyser la viabilité de l'état actuel et de la feuille de route future pour favoriser le secteur de l'énergie éolienne en adoptant le modèle SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats). Tout d'abord, un nouveau modèle de chaîne de valeur a été développé pour l'industrie éolienne. Deuxièmement, nous avons identifié les facteurs sociaux, économiques et environnementaux, influençant de manière significative la compétitivité et le développement de l'industrie éolienne grâce à un examen clair et précis des forces, des faiblesses, des opportunités et des menaces dans la perspective sud-asiatique. Un total de 19 facteurs ont été identifiés et analysés. Les résultats de la recherche indiquent la situation actuelle et les projections futures de l'industrie éolienne dans un environnement concurrentiel. Enfin, nous avons suggéré des mesures politiques essentielles pour stabiliser la croissance de l'industrie éolienne. Cette étude servira de référence pour le développement constant de l'industrie éolienne et vers une Asie du Sud sûre et durable. During the last decade, the major South Asian countries (Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh) have effectively utilized wind electricity to avoid future energy predicament. However, the wind industry is being influenced by a diverse range of factors. The aim of this study is to develop a value chain model for the South Asian wind power industry, scrutinize both internal and external factors to analyze the viability of present condition and future roadmap to foster the wind energy sector by adopting Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) model. Firstly, a novel value chain model was developed for the wind industry. Secondly, we identified the social, economic, and environmental factors, significantly influencing the competitiveness and development of the wind industry through clear and precise examination of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the South Asian perspective. A total of 19 factors were identified and analyzed. Research findings indicate the current situation and future projections of the wind industry in a competitive environment. Finally, we suggested essential policy measures to stabilize the wind industry's growth. This study will serve as a benchmark for the steady development of the wind power industry and towards a secure and sustainable South Asia. خلال العقد الماضي، استخدمت دول جنوب آسيا الرئيسية (باكستان والهند وبنغلاديش) بشكل فعال كهرباء الرياح لتجنب مأزق الطاقة في المستقبل. ومع ذلك، تتأثر صناعة الرياح بمجموعة متنوعة من العوامل. الهدف من هذه الدراسة هو تطوير نموذج سلسلة القيمة لصناعة طاقة الرياح في جنوب آسيا، والتدقيق في كل من العوامل الداخلية والخارجية لتحليل جدوى الوضع الحالي وخارطة الطريق المستقبلية لتعزيز قطاع طاقة الرياح من خلال اعتماد نموذج نقاط القوة والضعف والفرص والتهديدات (SWOT). أولاً، تم تطوير نموذج سلسلة قيمة جديد لصناعة الرياح. ثانيًا، حددنا العوامل الاجتماعية والاقتصادية والبيئية، التي تؤثر بشكل كبير على القدرة التنافسية وتطوير صناعة الرياح من خلال فحص واضح ودقيق لنقاط القوة والضعف والفرص والتهديدات من منظور جنوب آسيا. تم تحديد وتحليل ما مجموعه 19 عاملاً. تشير نتائج البحث إلى الوضع الحالي والتوقعات المستقبلية لصناعة الرياح في بيئة تنافسية. وأخيرًا، اقترحنا تدابير سياسية أساسية لتحقيق الاستقرار في نمو صناعة الرياح. ستكون هذه الدراسة بمثابة معيار للتطور المطرد لصناعة طاقة الرياح ونحو جنوب آسيا آمنة ومستدامة.

Abstract Mounting environmental pressures led China to focus on the effectiveness of the environmental regulation to control pollution. Since the shadow economy, or underground economic activities that are not included in official statistics, accounts for an increasing fraction of China's economy, its impacts on environmental quality should be carefully evaluated. In this study, the main research questions are as follows: 1) What is the extent of the effect of environmental regulation on environmental quality? and 2) What are the factors that influence the impact of environmental regulation on environmental pollution? A theoretical model is developed to explain the relationship among the environmental regulation, shadow economy, and environmental quality in China. An empirical analysis is conducted to test the three propositions of the model, thereby examining the explanatory power of the theoretical model. Concretely, using panel data from 30 provinces for the period of 1998–2012, the generalized method of moments (GMM) method is employed to control for potential endogeneity and introduce dynamic effects. The estimation results indicate that stringent environmental regulation and the level of the shadow economy are both positively related to China's environmental pollution; however, the results also indicate that tighter environmental control would help reduce pollution at a given level of the shadow economy. Moreover, an increase in the proportion of corrupt officials may weaken the environmental regulation, which would consequently lead to the increase in illegal production and total pollutant emissions. Besides, many economic and social factors may also affect the environmental quality. For instance, the development of secondary industry contributes toward an increase in pollutant emissions; however, increased research and development (R&D) spending on eco-friendly industrial operations can help to reduce pollution.

An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds approach and vector error correction model (VECM) are used here to better understand the role of financial development in energy demand in Ch...

Abstract Energy shortage and environmental degradation have become significant hurdles for China's sustainable development nowadays. One of the most efficient and effective ways to ease energy shortage is to sufficiently reduce energy intensity. In the extant literature on the influential factors of China's energy intensity, the regional imbalance and spatial spillover effects were basically ignored, which may yield to biased and unreasonable results. As a result, in this paper, the driving forces of China's provincial energy intensity were for the first time investigated by combining the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)-Malmquist and spatial panel approaches for the period between 2000 and 2014. The results indicate that technological progress plays a dominant role in decreasing China's overall energy intensity. In both the Eastern and Central regions, the technological progress and its components can decrease energy intensity, while this effect doesnot significantly exist in the Western region. Rapid industrialization should be responsible for China's currently high energy intensity, while energy price hiking is conducive to the decrease in energy intensity. Moreover, there is also clear evidence that these factors influence on energy intensity partly through the spatial spillover effects.

China has proposed the Belt and Road Initiative to promote the cooperation of energy production and trade between the relevant countries. This paper investigates the relationship between the energy consumption and economic growth of the countries along the Belt and Road using a panel of data for 69 countries during the period between 1970 and 2013. Both of the renewable and traditional fossil energy consumptions are investigated in this study. By employing vector error correction model (VECM), fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) approaches, the estimation results indicate that the nexuses of the energy consumption and economic developments vary across different subgroups. For the entire group, there is evidence of long-run bidirectional causalities among carbon emissions, energy use, industry value added and GDP per capita. For the energy-importing countries along the Belt and Road, there exists unidirectional short-run causality running from GDP to renewable energy and long-run causality in the reverse direction. In contrast, for the energy-exporting countries, there is a bidirectional causality between the energy use and GDP per capita in the long run. These findings suggest significant cooperation potential in the economies and trades of China and the Belt and Road countries.

Abstract Haze pollution has become a new threat to China's sustainable development, but it may be that local government behaviour can play an important role in the prevention and control of pollutants. A dynamic spatial autoregressive (SAR) model is used to study the relationship between local government competition and haze pollution. To further explore the indirect impact of factor market distortion on haze pollution and control potential endogeneity problems, a newly developed intermediary effect model that incorporates the characteristics of the generalized method of moments (GMM) is utilized to explore how factor market distortion indirectly affects haze pollution. The research results show that regional haze pollution in China is characterized by significant spatial correlation, and local government competition has a positive impact on haze pollution; that is, local government competition exacerbates haze pollution. In general, local government competition not only directly leads to an increase in haze pollution but also further intensifies it by distorting the local factor market, and the intermediary role of factor market distortion is approximately 7.04%. The results of the regional inspection found that competition among local governments in the eastern region did not lead to haze pollution, and distortion of the factor market did not exist as an intermediary effect. However, both direct and intermediary effects are significant in the central and western regions. Therefore, an official performance appraisal system that includes ecological constraints should be established to guide the benign transformation of local government competition, and an environmental management mechanism must be developed for joint prevention and control to reduce haze pollution. In addition, the free flow of factors and marketization are equally important.

Abstract As the pressure of environmental deterioration mounted in recent years, Chinese government has formulated a series of environmental policies and regulations with the intention of improving environmental quality. However, the effectiveness of these environmental regulations have not been carefully examined yet. This study for the first time investigates the effects of environmental regulations on the environmental performance. Using the city-level panel data of 283 Chinese cities for the period 2003–2010 and four indicators for environmental quality (the industrial waste water discharged, industrial SO2 emissions and industrial Soot emissions), this study employs the first-difference GMM method that could deal with potential endogeneity and allow dynamics to conduct the empirical estimations. Overall, the estimation results indicate that current environmental control measures and regulations have not achieved the desired goal of controlling and reducing pollution. Moreover, the direct impact of FDI on China's environment is negative, suggesting that there is evidence for the “Pollution Heaven” hypothesis. The coefficients of the interactive term of environmental regulation and foreign direct investment are estimated to be negative, which indicates that the environmental regulation is effective only when FDI is controlled for. The estimation results are basically consistent for different Chinese regions.