Spatial autocorrelation analysis of the environmental efficiency of coal-fired power plants in China

Although many studies have analyzed the environmental efficiency of coal-fired power plants in China with the aim of reducing CO 2 emissions, there has been much less focus on the locations of the plants and their spatial pattern. In this study, we investigate the spatial dependence of environmental...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inClean technologies and environmental policy Vol. 24; no. 7; pp. 2177 - 2192
Main Authors Nakaishi, Tomoaki, Nagashima, Fumiya, Kagawa, Shigemi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2022
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Autocorrelation
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide emissions
Coal
Coal-fired power plants
Coastal zone
Cooperation
Data envelopment analysis
Earth and Environmental Science
Efficiency
Emissions
Empirical analysis
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology
Environmental policy
Industrial and Production Engineering
Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering
Local government
Local knowledge
Original Paper
Power plants
Sustainable Development
China
Coal-fired power plant
Spatial autocorrelation analysis
China
Environmental efficiency
Data envelopment analysis
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Summary:Although many studies have analyzed the environmental efficiency of coal-fired power plants in China with the aim of reducing CO 2 emissions, there has been much less focus on the locations of the plants and their spatial pattern. In this study, we investigate the spatial dependence of environmental efficiency for coal-fired power plants in China from 2002 to 2011. We apply an integrated framework of data envelopment analysis and spatial autocorrelation analysis. We deduce the following three main findings from our empirical analysis: (1) the overall environmental efficiency of power plants increased during the study period, and the gap between the environmental efficiency of coastal and inland areas was reduced; (2) there is a positive spatial autocorrelation among the environmental efficiency levels of coal-fired power plants in China, and this spatial agglomeration has increased annually; and (3) high-efficiency power plants are spatially clustered in coastal areas while low-efficiency power plants are clustered in inland areas. Based on these findings, we conclude that cooperation among neighboring power plant managers is crucial to achieving effective environmental efficiency improvements, and that central and local governments should facilitate knowledge and technology spillover among the power plants. Graphical abstract
ISSN:1618-954X
1618-9558
DOI:10.1007/s10098-022-02310-4