A study of carbon dioxide emissions performance of China's transport sector

Undesirable output-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models with different return of scales are used to study the CO₂ (Carbon dioxide) emissions performance of the transport sector throughout China's 30 administrative regions. Empirical results show that the number of efficient regions has decreased since 2004, hitting the lowest record in 2006, and improving slightly afterwards. The overall average performance rating reached its peak in 2004 and continuously decreased until it hit its lowest record in 2006. Although it slightly increased in 2007, performance rating has decreased since 2008. This pattern is consistent with the policy guidance of the transport sector in the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). In general, Eastern China performed better than Central and Western by adjusting undesirable output (CO₂). However, Central performed better than Eastern and Western by adjusting both CO₂ emissions and desirable outputs. It may be because that transport infrastructure facilities are heavily concentrated in Eastern and spatial clusters. The clusters are like stair steps decreasing from the higher Eastern to Central then to the lower Western. This indicates that the development of transport infrastructure go hand in hand in China. Hence, Eastern may not have too much improvement room by adjusting desirable outputs. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.