Regional embodied Water-Energy-Carbon efficiency of China

Limited publications were designed to examine the Water-Energy-Carbon (WEC) efficiency of different regions. This study is the first to seek to identify the regional embodied WEC efficiency of China, including 31 of 34 provinces, using the Multiregional Input-Output approach. The provincial embodied WEC coefficients, total amount of embodied WEC, embodied amount of WEC per capita are explored. Results show that: i) Xinjiang (33 Gt/k(sic)), Hebei (34 MJ/(sic)) and Ningxia (5 t/k(sic)) separately dominate the lists of provincial embodied water consumption coefficients, energy consumption coefficients and CO2 emission coefficients; ii) Shandong and Jiangsu consume the most embodied water at 109 Gm(3) and 105 Gm(3), embodied energy at 21 EJ and 20 EJ, and emit the most CO2 emissions at 2.7 Gt and 2.2 Gt. However, as the more developed province and with higher GDP, Guangdong has lower embodied WEC amount and higher WEC efficiency; iii) The regions that have larger values of embodied WEC per capita, mainly located at the east and north-west of China, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. This study targets the contribution to understanding the regional WEC efficiency performance, highlighting the spots and economies that deserve the uppermost attention for emissions reduction. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study examines the regional embodied Water-Energy-Carbon efficiency of China's 31 provinces, revealing varying performances in terms of water consumption, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. Regions with larger values of embodied WEC per capita are mainly located in the east and north-west of China.