IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v27y2019i1p130-152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is the low‐carbon economy efficient in terms of sustainable development? A global perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Yu Zhang
  • Liyin Shen
  • Chenyang Shuai
  • Yongtao Tan
  • Yitian Ren
  • Ya Wu

Abstract

Despite great efforts being devoted to, and substantial resources being consumed by low‐carbon economy (LCE) development globally, it appears that little is known about whether LCE development is efficient. This paper measures low‐carbon economy efficiency (LCEE) performance from a global perspective. The Super‐slack‐based measure model is adopted to analyse the LCEE performance of 115 sample countries during 1999–2013. The Malmquist Productivity Index is used to evaluate the dynamic change of LCEE between sample countries. The results indicate that overall worldwide LCEE performance is at low levels, and the differences in LCEE performance among the 115 sample countries are significant. It also indicates that LCEE performance is generally better in developed countries. From the dynamic perspective, a significant improvement in LCEE performance was achieved globally during the survey period, with an overall annual increase of 0.75%. These results provide a valuable reference to policy‐makers and practitioners for adopting measures to promote LCE development effectively at a global level.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu Zhang & Liyin Shen & Chenyang Shuai & Yongtao Tan & Yitian Ren & Ya Wu, 2019. "Is the low‐carbon economy efficient in terms of sustainable development? A global perspective," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 130-152, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:27:y:2019:i:1:p:130-152
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.1884
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1884
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.1884?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
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Sha, Ru & Li, Jinye & Ge, Tao, 2021. "How do price distortions of fossil energy sources affect China's green economic efficiency?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    2. Murat Kucukvar & Khalel Ahmed Alawi & Galal M. Abdella & Muhammet Enis Bulak & Nuri C. Onat & Melih Bulu & Murat Yalçıntaş, 2021. "A frontier‐based managerial approach for relative sustainability performance assessment of the world's airports," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 89-107, January.
    3. Pang, Silu & Hua, Guihong & Liu, Hui, 2023. "How do R&D capital market distortions affect innovation efficiency in China? Some evidence about spatial interaction and spillover effects," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Jindao Chen & Yuhong Wang & Qian Shi & Xu Peng & Juhuan Zheng, 2021. "An international comparison analysis of CO2 emissions in the construction industry," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 754-767, July.
    5. Matheus Koengkan & José Alberto Fuinhas & Emad Kazemzadeh & Fariba Osmani & Nooshin Karimi Alavijeh, 2022. "Measuring the economic efficiency performance in Latin American and Caribbean countries: An empirical evidence from stochastic production frontier and data envelopment analysis," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 169, pages 43-54.
    6. Alharthi, Majed & Hanif, Imran & Alamoudi, Hawazen, 2022. "Impact of environmental pollution on human health and financial status of households in MENA countries: Future of using renewable energy to eliminate the environmental pollution," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 338-346.
    7. Chien‐Chiang Lee & Godwin Olasehinde‐Williams, 2024. "Does economic complexity influence environmental performance? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 356-382, January.
    8. Bai, Rui & Lin, Boqiang, 2024. "An in-depth analysis of green innovation efficiency: New evidence based on club convergence and spatial correlation network," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    9. Jiandong Chen & Ming Gao & Shulei Cheng & Yiyin Xu & Malin Song & Yu Liu & Wenxuan Hou & Shuhong Wang, 2022. "Evaluation and drivers of global low-carbon economies based on satellite data," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Ya Wu & Chenyang Shuai & Liu Wu & Liyin Shen & Jianzhong Yan & Liudan Jiao & Shiju Liao, 2020. "A new experience mining approach for improving low carbon city development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 922-934, July.
    11. Deng, Yue & Jiang, Wanyi & Wang, Zeyu, 2023. "Economic resilience assessment and policy interaction of coal resource oriented cities for the low carbon economy based on AI," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Zezhou Wu & Ann T.W. Yu & Chi Sun Poon, 2020. "Promoting effective construction and demolition waste management towards sustainable development: A case study of Hong Kong," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1713-1724, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:sustdv:v:27:y:2019:i:1:p:130-152. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    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.