Research on industrial Environmental Burden and Environment Learning Curve in Shanxi Province

Based on the statistics data from 1995 to 2010 in Shanxi industry, this article selects four indexes which include the energy and water consumption, waste gas, SO2, mist and dust, waste water, COD, per 10(4) RMB Yuan, and establishes environment learning curves of energy consumption and air pollution, water consumption and pollution in Shanxi province. According to these models, the potentials of resources saving and pollution reducing in different periods are calculated and analyzed, represented by the decrease of each index when the per capita GDP increase 1000 yuan. The result shows that: (1) With the growth of GDP per capital, each index falls by power exponential model which follows "environmental learning curve", illustrating that the burden of resource and environment was steady declining. (2) The potentials of saving energy resources and reducing pollution in Shanxi province gradually descents from 1995 to 2010, illustrating that the reduction in marginal cost by the development of technology is becoming smaller and smaller, and the enhancement of resource using efficiency and pollution reducing efficiency is not unlimited.