Energy efficiency evaluation for regions in China: an application of DEA and Malmquist indices

With the development of economy, the impression of energy and environment is increasing, and improving energy efficiency plays a vital role in the sustainable economic development in China. An application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist indices has been used in this paper to investigate energy utilization efficiency of 30 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities (apart from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Tibet) in China. The results show that industries in the eastern area have the best average energy efficiency for the period 2006–2009, followed by the central area. The industrial energy overall technical efficiency, industrial energy pure technical efficiency, industrial energy scale efficiency, etc. in 30 different regions of China are examined. By the comparative analysis of energy efficiency, the results show that the energy efficiency of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Hainan provinces is effective, and the lowest six regions of energy efficiency are Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Liaoning, Chongqing, and Jilin, whose energy efficiency is in the level of 0.5 or so. The results mean that the eastern regions are better than the central and western regions according to energy efficiency.