Regional Carbon Emission Performance of Pig Production in China according to Malmquist-DEA Approach

As pig production is a main contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock sector, the carbon emissions of pig production are attracting increasing attention, especially in the developing countries. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2001 to 2012, this paper measures the provincial carbon emission performance (CEP) of pig production and we use a Malmquist DEA approach to analyze the decomposition which includes desirable and undesirable output. Furthermore, the regional disparity in carbon emission performance of pig production is also analyzed and finally the convergence is tested. The main results are as follows: (i) there are provincial differences in carbon emission performance changing of pig production in China, and the carbon emission performance of pig production in 30 provinces has a downward trend during this period; (ii) among China’s three major economic regions, in terms of carbon emission performance of pig production, they are ranked in descending order as follows: Western China, Central China and Eastern China; (iii) convergence testing shows that there is a convergence trend for carbon emission performance both nationally and for the three regions.