Towards Carbon Neutrality: The Impact of Renewable Energy Development on Carbon Emission Efficiency

Abstract

The energy transition and carbon emission efficiency are important thrust and target functions, respectively, for achieving carbon neutrality in the future. Using a sample of 30 Chinese provinces from 2006 to 2018, we measured their carbon efficiency using the game cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA). Then, a random forest regression model was used to explore the impact of renewable energy development on regional carbon emission efficiency. The results are as follows. First, China’s carbon emission efficiency in the southeast coastal area was better than that in the northwest area. Second, renewable energy development first inhibited and then promoted carbon emission efficiency, and there existed a reasonable range. Third, through a regional heterogeneity analysis, the trend of the influence of renewable energy development on carbon emission efficiency was found to not be significantly different in eastern, central, and western China, but there was a certain gap in the reasonable range. Our study not only helps to promote the study of renewable energy development and the carbon neutral target, but also provides an important reference for Chinese policy-makers to design a reasonable carbon emissions reduction path.

Inverse problem for retrieving greenhouse gas fluxes at the non-uniform underlying surface from measurements of their concentrations at several levels

“…Due to the increasing anthropogenic influence on the atmosphere, the problem of investigating and assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere has become very challenging [1][2][3]. Among the various experimental methods used to measure GHG fluxes in the field, eddy covariance and chamber methods are the most widely used [4][5].…”

Simulation study on the development decision of new energy manufacturers under the weight of consumption responsibility

“…Zeng et al ( 2023 ) proposed a model of interprovincial cooperation under RPS in China and explored the effects of different parameter values on the results of the interprovincial cooperation model. Others consider the impact of economic development (Eren et al 2019 ), investment levels (Özgül et al 2020 ), new energy technologies (Castrejon-Campos 2022 ), and carbon neutrality targets (Dong et al 2021 ) on the new energy development. Scholars have studied the impact factors of new energy development more comprehensively, but the impact of each factor on new energy development under the WCR policy needs to be further explored.…”

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Carbon Emission Efficiency in the Yellow River Basin of China: Comparative Analysis of Resource and Non-Resource-Based Cities

“…Although many theoretical and empirical studies have been made in the related studies of CEE, there are still a series of problems that need to be solved. First, existing studies mainly focused on the macro level, such as the national or provincial level [ 20 , 35 ]. However, less research has been done on CEE at the special scale spatial unit of the river basin.…”

“…The importance of the study of the YRB is further emphasized by its dominance by traditional resource-intensive industries [ 36 ]. Second, the Theil index has been widely used to study CEE differences [ 35 ], however, the differences between and within groups are less frequently compared. Third, an overall regression analysis is often conducted based on all study samples to explore the main influencing factors, neglecting the heterogeneity of the role of influencing factors on different types of cities, and the reasons for the differences in carbon emission efficiency are not investigated.…”