IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v225y2021ics0360544221004576.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the path of carbon emissions reduction in China’s industrial sector through energy efficiency enhancement induced by R&D investment

Author

Listed:
  • He, Yong
  • Fu, Feifei
  • Liao, Nuo

Abstract

The energy efficiency enhancement induced by R&D investment is of vital importance to curb the carbon emissions in industrial sector. However, none of the literatures have incorporated R&D investment into the economic growth model to explore the path of energy efficiency enhancement. Therefore, this paper explores the path of energy efficiency improvement to achieve carbon intensity and carbon peak goals from the perspective of R&D investment. We establish a multi-objective optimization model with industrial economic output, total energy consumption and carbon emissions being the objectives, and R&D intensity and physical capital investment being control variables. The genetic algorithm is utilized to find out the optimal path of energy efficiency improvement in China’s industrial sector. The results indicate that, under the optimized scenario, the average annual growth rate of R&D intensity and physical capital investment are 11.14% and 10.61%, respectively, which increase 3.06% and 0.02% compared to the baseline scenario; the energy intensity will decrease by 78.4% in 2030 compared to that in 2005. The energy consumption and carbon emissions will be significantly lower than that in the baseline scenario, and will peak at 2672Mtce and 6042 Mt respectively in 2021. Moreover, the paths of energy efficiency enhancement induced by R&D investment in various industrial sub-sectors are worth studying in the further work.

Suggested Citation

  • He, Yong & Fu, Feifei & Liao, Nuo, 2021. "Exploring the path of carbon emissions reduction in China’s industrial sector through energy efficiency enhancement induced by R&D investment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:225:y:2021:i:c:s0360544221004576
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120208
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221004576
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120208?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Inglesi-Lotz, Roula, 2017. "Social rate of return to R&D on various energy technologies: Where should we invest more? A study of G7 countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 521-525.
    2. Bosetti, Valentina & Carraro, Carlo & Duval, Romain & Tavoni, Massimo, 2011. "What should we expect from innovation? A model-based assessment of the environmental and mitigation cost implications of climate-related R&D," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1313-1320.
    3. Yang, Lin & Yang, Yuantao & Zhang, Xian & Tang, Kai, 2018. "Whether China's industrial sectors make efforts to reduce CO2 emissions from production? - A decomposed decoupling analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 796-809.
    4. Guo, Ran & Yuan, Yijun, 2020. "Different types of environmental regulations and heterogeneous influence on energy efficiency in the industrial sector: Evidence from Chinese provincial data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    5. Gui, Shusen & Wu, Chunyou & Qu, Ying & Guo, Lingling, 2017. "Path analysis of factors impacting China's CO2 emission intensity: Viewpoint on energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 650-658.
    6. Ouyang, Xiaoling & Fang, Xingming & Cao, Yan & Sun, Chuanwang, 2020. "Factors behind CO2 emission reduction in Chinese heavy industries: Do environmental regulations matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    7. Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "China’s regional industrial energy efficiency and carbon emissions abatement costs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 617-631.
    8. Karali, Nihan & Park, Won Young & McNeil, Michael, 2017. "Modeling technological change and its impact on energy savings in the U.S. iron and steel sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 447-458.
    9. Huang, Junbing & Chen, Xiang, 2020. "Domestic R&D activities, technology absorption ability, and energy intensity in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    10. Huang, Ying & Liao, Cuiping & Zhang, Jingjing & Guo, Hongxu & Zhou, Nan & Zhao, Daiqing, 2019. "Exploring potential pathways towards urban greenhouse gas peaks: A case study of Guangzhou, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Wang, Yihan & Wen, Zongguo & Yao, Jianguo & Doh Dinga, Christian, 2020. "Multi-objective optimization of synergic energy conservation and CO2 emission reduction in China's iron and steel industry under uncertainty," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    12. Raymond W. Goldsmith, 1951. "A Perpetual Inventory of National Wealth," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 14, pages 5-73, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Huang, Junbing & Du, Dan & Tao, Qizhi, 2017. "An analysis of technological factors and energy intensity in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 1-9.
    14. Zhao, Jing & Duan, Yaoqi & Liu, Xiaojuan, 2019. "Study on the policy of replacing coal-fired boilers with gas-fired boilers for central heating based on the 3E system and the TOPSIS method: A case in Tianjin, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    15. Valentina Bosetti & Emanuele Massetti & Massimo Tavoni, 2007. "The WITCH Model. Structure, Baseline, Solutions," Working Papers 2007.10, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    16. Ofosu-Adarkwa, Jeffrey & Xie, Naiming & Javed, Saad Ahmed, 2020. "Forecasting CO2 emissions of China's cement industry using a hybrid Verhulst-GM(1,N) model and emissions' technical conversion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    17. Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili & Gan, Chunhui & Cao, Jianhua & Geng, Yong & Guan, Dabo, 2016. "Using an extended LMDI model to explore techno-economic drivers of energy-related industrial CO2 emission changes: A case study for Shanghai (China)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 516-536.
    18. Hasanbeigi, Ali & Morrow, William & Sathaye, Jayant & Masanet, Eric & Xu, Tengfang, 2013. "A bottom-up model to estimate the energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction potentials in the Chinese iron and steel industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 315-325.
    19. A S M Monjurul Hasan & Andrea Trianni, 2020. "A Review of Energy Management Assessment Models for Industrial Energy Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    20. Gu, Gaoxiang & Wang, Zheng, 2018. "China’s carbon emissions abatement under industrial restructuring by investment restriction," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 133-144.
    21. Liu, Nan & Ma, Zujun & Kang, Jidong, 2015. "Changes in carbon intensity in China's industrial sector: Decomposition and attribution analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 28-38.
    22. Ouyang, Xiaoling & Chen, Jiaqi & Du, Kerui, 2021. "Energy efficiency performance of the industrial sector: From the perspective of technological gap in different regions in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    23. Wang, Juan & Hu, Mingming & Rodrigues, João F.D., 2018. "The evolution and driving forces of industrial aggregate energy intensity in China: An extended decomposition analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 2195-2206.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Duan, Wenjun & Li, Rongmin & Yang, Shuo & Han, Jiachen & Lv, Xiaojun & Wang, Zhimei & Yu, Qingbo, 2024. "Theoretical study on coal gasification behavior in CO2 atmosphere driven by slag waste heat," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    2. Tan, Xiujie & Wang, Rui & Choi, Yongrok & Lee, Hyoungsuk, 2024. "Does Korea's carbon emissions trading scheme enhance efficiency for sustainable energy and utilities?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Ma, Qiang & Tariq, Muhammad & Mahmood, Haider & Khan, Zeeshan, 2022. "The nexus between digital economy and carbon dioxide emissions in China: The moderating role of investments in research and development," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    4. Xu Wang & Xiang Su & Ke Bi, 2023. "Achieving Synergies of Carbon Emission Reduction, Cost Savings, and Asset Investments in China’s Industrial Sector: Towards Sustainable Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Wang, Yong & Zhao, Wenhao & Ma, Xuejiao, 2024. "The spatial spillover impact of artificial intelligence on energy efficiency: Empirical evidence from 278 Chinese cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    6. Xie, Pinjie & Shu, Yalin & Sun, Feihu & Li, Pin, 2024. "Decoupling economic development from carbon emissions: Insights from Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    7. Liu, Jian & Yang, Qingshan & Ou, Suhua & Liu, Jie, 2022. "Factor decomposition and the decoupling effect of carbon emissions in China's manufacturing high-emission subsectors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    8. Abudureheman, Maliyamu & Jiang, Qingzhe & Dong, Xiucheng & Dong, Cong, 2022. "Spatial effects of dynamic comprehensive energy efficiency on CO2 reduction in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    9. Jin, Baoling & Han, Ying & Kou, Po, 2023. "Dynamically evaluating the comprehensive efficiency of technological innovation and low-carbon economy in China's industrial sectors," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Li, Hongwei & Zhang, Rongjun & Wang, Tianye & Wu, Yu & Xu, Run & Wang, Qiang & Tang, Zhigang, 2022. "Performance evaluation and environment risk assessment of steel slag enhancement for seawater to capture CO2," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PB).
    11. Jianmin You & Xiqiang Chen & Jindao Chen, 2021. "Decomposition of Industrial Electricity Efficiency and Electricity-Saving Potential of Special Economic Zones in China Considering the Heterogeneity of Administrative Hierarchy and Regional Location," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-22, September.
    12. Li, Hongbing & Zheng, Qingbiao & Zhang, Bingbing & Sun, Chuanwang, 2021. "Trade policy uncertainty and improvement in energy efficiency: Empirical evidence from prefecture-level cities in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    13. Chang, Kai & Long, Yu & Yang, Jiahui & Zhang, Huijia & Xue, Chenqi & Liu, Jianing, 2022. "Effects of subsidy and tax rebate policies on green firm research and development efficiency in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    14. Na Yu & Jianghua Chen & Lei Cheng, 2022. "Evolutionary Game Analysis of Carbon Emission Reduction between Government and Enterprises under Carbon Quota Trading Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-22, July.
    15. Renjie Zhang & Hsingwei Tai & Kuotai Cheng & Huizhong Dong & Wenhui Liu & Junjie Hou, 2022. "Carbon Emission Efficiency Network: Evolutionary Game and Sensitivity Analysis between Differentiated Efficiency Groups and Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Liu, Yisheng & Yang, Meng & Cheng, Feiyu & Tian, Jinzhao & Du, Zhuoqun & Song, Pengbo, 2022. "Analysis of regional differences and decomposition of carbon emissions in China based on generalized divisia index method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    17. Jun Liu & Yu Qian & Yuanjun Yang & Zhidan Yang, 2022. "Can Artificial Intelligence Improve the Energy Efficiency of Manufacturing Companies? Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Yu, Shiyu & Liang, Yanpeng & Zhu, Zhe & Olaniyi, Oladokun Nafiu & Khan, Numan, 2024. "Dutch disease perspective of energy sector: Natural resources and energy sector nexus with the role of renewable energy consumption," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    19. Wang, Lianghu & Shao, Jun & Ma, Yatian, 2023. "Does China's low-carbon city pilot policy improve energy efficiency?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    20. Rui Zhou & Jiajun Lou & Bing He, 2025. "Greening Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance: The Impact of China’s Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot Policy on Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-21, January.
    21. Xiaochun Zhao & Huixin Xu & Qun Sun, 2022. "Research on China’s Carbon Emission Efficiency and Its Regional Differences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-14, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. He, Yong & Liao, Nuo & Lin, Kunrong, 2021. "Can China's industrial sector achieve energy conservation and emission reduction goals dominated by energy efficiency enhancement? A multi-objective optimization approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. Hassan, Taimoor & Song, Huaming & Khan, Yasir & Kirikkaleli, Dervis, 2022. "Energy efficiency a source of low carbon energy sources? Evidence from 16 high-income OECD economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    3. Tian, Lingyue & Chai, Jian & Zhang, Xiaokong & Pan, Yue, 2024. "Spatiotemporal evolution and driving factors of China's carbon footprint pressure: Based on vegetation carbon sequestration and LMDI decomposition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    4. Ying Han & Baoling Jin & Xiaoyuan Qi & Huasen Zhou, 2021. "Influential Factors and Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Carbon Intensity on Industrial Sectors in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Wu, Shu & Ding, Song, 2021. "Efficiency improvement, structural change, and energy intensity reduction: Evidence from Chinese agricultural sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Wang, Ning & Li, Heng & Liu, Gengyuan & Meng, Fanxin & Shan, Shaolei & Wang, Zongshui, 2018. "Developing a more comprehensive energy efficiency index for coal production: Indicators, methods and case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 944-952.
    7. Ünal, Berat Berkan & Onaygil, Sermin & Acuner, Ebru & Cin, Rabia, 2022. "Application of energy efficiency obligation scheme for electricity distribution companies in Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    8. Dinga, Christian Doh & Wen, Zongguo, 2022. "China's green deal: Can China's cement industry achieve carbon neutral emissions by 2060?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    9. Lin, Boqiang & Xu, Bin, 2018. "How to promote the growth of new energy industry at different stages?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 390-403.
    10. Zhang, Wei & Wang, Nan, 2021. "Decomposition of energy intensity in Chinese industries using an extended LMDI method of production element endowment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    11. Liang, Wei & Gan, Ting & Zhang, Wei, 2019. "Dynamic evolution of characteristics and decomposition of factors influencing industrial carbon dioxide emissions in China: 1991–2015," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 93-106.
    12. Luan, Bingjiang & Zou, Hong & Chen, Shuxing & Huang, Junbing, 2021. "The effect of industrial structure adjustment on China’s energy intensity: Evidence from linear and nonlinear analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    13. Wang, Juan & Hu, Mingming & Rodrigues, João F.D., 2018. "The evolution and driving forces of industrial aggregate energy intensity in China: An extended decomposition analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 2195-2206.
    14. Chen, Yu & Lin, Boqiang, 2021. "Understanding the green total factor energy efficiency gap between regional manufacturing—insight from infrastructure development," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    15. Liu, Jian & Yang, Qingshan & Ou, Suhua & Liu, Jie, 2022. "Factor decomposition and the decoupling effect of carbon emissions in China's manufacturing high-emission subsectors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    16. Carraro, Carlo & Favero, Alice & Massetti, Emanuele, 2012. "“Investments and public finance in a green, low carbon, economy”," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(S1), pages 15-28.
    17. Yan Zhao & Hui Sun & Xuechao Xia & Dianyuan Ma, 2023. "Can R&D Intensity Reduce Carbon Emissions Intensity? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-24, January.
    18. Yu, Shiyu & Liang, Yanpeng & Zhu, Zhe & Olaniyi, Oladokun Nafiu & Khan, Numan, 2024. "Dutch disease perspective of energy sector: Natural resources and energy sector nexus with the role of renewable energy consumption," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    19. Yong Yang & Junsong Jia & Chundi Chen, 2020. "Residential Energy-Related CO 2 Emissions in China’s Less Developed Regions: A Case Study of Jiangxi," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-28, March.
    20. Yongbin Zhu & Zheng Wang, 2014. "An Optimal Balanced Economic Growth and Abatement Pathway for China Under the Carbon Emissions Budget," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 44(2), pages 253-268, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:225:y:2021:i:c:s0360544221004576. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.