Carbon emission efficiency and reduction cost of China during 1997-2011

The assessments of carbon emission efficiency and reduction cost play an important role in formulating environmental policies. By estimating environmental directional distance function and shadow price of carbon dioxide emissions, this paper aims to evaluate carbon emission efficiency and reduction cost of China and its 30 provinces in China respectively from 1997 to 2011. Based on the estimated results and the growth rate of carbon emissions and economy outputs, China can be divided into three abatement zones: the steep-slope zone, the flat zone and the plateau zone. The comparison of the emission characteristics and potential reductions across the three zones leads to three findings of the study: (i) carbon emission performances varied greatly from province to province; (ii) the shadow price of China between 1997-2011 met a turning point in 2002, keeping increasing before the year but declining afterwards; and (iii) though carbon emissions among three zones exhibit great differences, yet similarities existed within each area. In addition, in order to carry out the abatement measures more economically, many other factors also need to be taken into account, including the regional emission efficiency and reduction costs, economy level, resources endowment and energy consumption structure and so on.