Coordinated Development between Regional Energy Efficiency and the Economy in China
中国区域能源利用效率与经济水平协调发展研究

The scarcity and strategic importance of energy resources are growing and increasing attention is being paid to the coordinated development of the socio-economy and energy efficiency. By constructing a comprehensive evaluation index system, we systematically evaluated the level of economic development (2000-2010) and energy efficiency (2000-2009) across eight economic zones in China. We found that the level of regional economic development and energy efficiency continuously improves. Southern areas are more vibrant in improving energy efficiency compared to northern areas. From 2006 to 2010, the economic development speed of all regions in China was significantly accelerated. The eastern and northern coastal economic zones have the highest average growth rates;the economic development of northwest economic zone slightly fluctuated, and the other economic zones followed a steady upward trend. High level economic development and energy efficiency areas were distributed linearly and followed a decreasing trend from the east coast to central China and western inland areas. The coordination of regional economic development and energy utilization efficiency has been enhanced. The coordination degree of the eastern and northern coastal economic zones was the highest;the southern coastal and northeast economic zones were medium;the middle reaches of Yellow River and Yangtze River economic zones and southwest and northwest economic zones was the lowest. Provinces with coordination between 0.4 and 0.6 significantly increased, from six provinces in 2000 to 16 provinces in 2009. The coordination degree of provinces in eastern coast, northern coast, the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the northwest areas increased significantly.