Is reducing fossil fuel intensity important for environmental management and ensuring ecological efficiency in China?

Since China is a country with high environmental pollution, researchers have intensively studied China's environmental problems using various environmental indicators such as carbon emissions and ecological foot-print. Unlike previous literature, this study analyzes the effects of economic growth, globalization, foreign direct investment, and fossil energy intensity on ecological efficiency in China. As an innovation to the literature, the study examines the Chinese ecosystem simultaneously with its economic and environmental aspects by focusing on ecological efficiency. To this end, the study applies dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) simu-lations and kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) methods for the period from 1990 to 2018. The results of the DARDL simulations show that globalization, and economic growth enhance ecological efficiency in China. The findings also demonstrate that both foreign direct investment and fossil fuel intensity have a negative impact on environmental quality in China. Based on these results, the study suggests that the Chinese government should adopt policies to channel foreign direct investment into environmentally friendly production, reduce fossil fuel intensity, and improve ecological efficiency by making use of environmentally friendly technologies provided by globalization and economic development.

Automated summary

As China faces severe environmental pollution, researchers have conducted in-depth studies on China's environmental problems using various environmental indicators such as carbon emissions and ecological footprints. Unlike previous studies, this research analyzes the impact of economic growth, globalization, foreign direct investment, and fossil energy intensity on ecological efficiency in China. The results show that globalization and economic growth contribute to improving ecological efficiency, while foreign direct investment and fossil fuel intensity exert a negative impact on China's environmental quality. Based on these findings, the study suggests that the Chinese government should implement policies to direct foreign direct investment towards environmentally friendly production, reduce fossil fuel intensity, and improve ecological efficiency through the utilization of environmentally friendly technologies provided by globalization and economic development.