Research on Low-Carbon Development Ecological Efficiency and its Spatial Correlation for Countries along the "One Belt and Road"

The proposal of the "One Belt and Road" initiative has provided new opportunities for the development of the countries and regions along the route. It will also inevitably affect the ecological environment while promoting the free flow of economic elements and efficient allocation of resources. Low carbon development efficiency is an important indicator of the coordinated development of economy and ecology, so clarifying the Low-carbon development efficiency and its spatial characteristics for countries along the "One Belt and Road" is of great significance for promoting the construction of the "Green Belt and Road". The paper established the evaluation system of Low-carbon development efficiency for countries along the "One Belt and Road", using panel data of 54 countries along the route from 2007 to 2016. The Super-SBM model with undesirable outputs and Malmquist TFP index were used to study its Low-carbon development efficiency in static and dynamic way, and the Moran's I index calculated by ArcGIS software was used to explore its spatial autocorrelation. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) The overall level of the Low-carbon development efficiency is relatively low and varies widely for countries along the "One Belt and Road", for most countries, PTE is the main factor affecting the Low-carbon development efficiency; (2) The improvement of the Low-carbon development efficiency for countries along the "One Belt and Road" is mainly driven by technology; (3) There is a positive spatial autocorrelation among the Low-carbon development efficiency for countries along the "one Belt and Road", and the trend of spatial correlation is more and more obvious. According to the conclusion, the corresponding policy recommendations were put forward.