Measuring the energy transition in Chinese provinces: a new comprehensive evaluation approach

In the past two decades, we have witnessed an unprecedented acceleration of the energy transition in China. The implications of the ongoing energy transition will reverberate across the established energy, economic, and environmental systems. This study constructed a new comprehensive evaluation index system to evaluate the energy transition in 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2019. We found that the average score of China’s provincial energy transition in 2019 (0.518) was higher than that in 2000 (0.410); the average score of provincial energy transition from 2000 to 2019 was only 0.445. During this period, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Fujian, andIEA 2011 Guangdong were the top five provinces in terms of average scores, and Tianjin, Ningxia, Shanxi, Shanghai, and Hainan were the five provinces with the lowest average scores. We also found that provincial energy transition has significant peer-group characteristics, including region, income level, provincial energy trade, and international energy trade. Moreover, compared with the energy transition measured by comprehensive evaluation, the energy transition measured by energy structure underestimated the quality of energy transition in the eastern and central regions. It overestimated the quality of energy transition in the western region.