Decomposition of carbon emission reduction efficiency and potential for clean energy power: Evidence from 58 countries

With more countries committing to achieving carbon neutrality targets by midcentury to mitigate global climate change, it is necessary to replace the combustion of fossil fuels in the power industry with clean energy and improve the CO2 reduction efficiency (CRE) of clean energy. Therefore, this study introduces a multi-hierarchy meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to estimate the CO2 reduction inefficiency (CRI) and potential in nuclear power and three renewable power industries of 58 countries, which are decomposed into three components of industrial technology gaps, regional technology gaps, and management levels derived from the heterogeneities of regions and power industries. The dynamic performance of CO2 emissions reduction is then analyzed. The main results are as follows. (1) Among the countries in each region, China, the USA, and Russia have greater average CRE values of 0.6605, 0.4817 and 0.7486 for clean-energy power industry from 2011 to 2018, respectively. The assessment of CRE by using the regional frontier as the evaluation criterion yields the greatest efficiency. The CRE is greater when using the industrial frontier as the benchmark compared to the use of the meta-frontier. (2) Currently, Asia, America, and Europe have the CRI values of 0.3262, 0.4706 and 0.3831 for nuclear power industry, and need improvements in technology structure, regional technology gaps, and internal management, respectively. Hydropower has a lower CRI than solar and wind power, with Asia having the highest CO2 reduction potential at nearly 700 Mt; The primary reason for the CRI in Asia and Europe is management inefficiency, while in America it's the inefficiency of regional development. The large CRI values are recorded for solar and wind power, especially in Europe where the values are 0.7957 and 0.7320, respectively. (3) The CRE of the global clean-energy power industry improves by an average of 2.27% from 2011 to 2018, primarily due to technological progress and improvements in technical efficiency. In response to these findings, targeted policy implications are developed to strengthen the transition to the advanced technologies and management options for maximizing CO2 mitigation.

Automated summary

This study uses a multi-hierarchy meta-frontier data envelopment analysis approach to estimate CO2 reduction inefficiency and potential in nuclear and renewable power industries of 58 countries, providing policy implications for maximizing CO2 mitigation.