The Impact of Energy Consumption and Economic Development on Changes in China’s Provincial-Level Environmental Quality

Abstract

Based on the features of energy consumption and economic development in China, since single pollutant can hardly express the situation of environmental pollution, we propose a pollution emissions index that can reflect the level of environmental quality, measure China’s 28 provinces’ environmental quality from 1995 to 2010 with a dynamic objective evaluation method based on the overall differences first time. Then panel data model was applied to analyze the impact of energy consumption and economic development on China’s and regional environmental quality. The results showed that emissions index varied among different regions and there was great potential for emission reduction; there was a significant positive correlation between emissions index and scale of economies and industrial structure; there was a negative correlation between emissions index and energy efficiency, energy prices and degree of opening up. Policy implications are as follows: 1) reduction policies should be made in line with local conditions; 2) the eastern region is the key areas of emissions reduction; 3) to improve energy efficiency is an important way to reduce emissions.