Considering Emission Treatment for Energy-Efficiency Improvement and Air Pollution Reduction in China’s Industrial Sector

Abstract

China has one of the most serious air quality conditions in the world, with the main energy consumption and air pollution emissions coming from its industrial sector. Since 2010, the Chinese government has strengthened the governance requirements for industrial sector emissions. This study uses emission treatment as a new input on the basis of past literature, and employs the dynamic SBM model to evaluate the energy and emission-reduction efficiencies of the country’s industrial sector from 2011 to 2015. The study finds that the improvement in industrial sector efficiency is not only due to the optimization of the energy consumption structure and reduction of energy intensity, but also from investing inemission treatment methods that help cut emissions as an undesirable output. The end result is a positive effect on the improvement and sustainability of energy and emission-reduction efficiencies.