Income gap and global carbon productivity inequality: A meta-frontier data envelopment analysis

Since the 21st century, low-carbon economy has gradually attracted the people all over the world. From the perspective of the income gap, studying the total-factor carbon productivity (TFCP) can help countries more reasonably assess the potential to reduce CO2 emissions. This study aimed to investigate the patterns of global carbon productivity (CP) and reduction potential of CO2 emissions, from the perspective of income gap. A meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used for decomposing the change of TFCP and reduction potential of CO2 emissions into three components, i.e., technology gap, scale economy, and management. The panel data for 83 countries/regions during 1990-2017 was collected for the empirical study. The results show that: (1) during 1990-2017, the TFCP based on the global meta-frontier showed a slow rising trend, with an increase by 46.17%, technological progress was the biggest promoting factor, followed by scale efficiency and management efficiency; (2) the TFCP of countries with high income levels rose faster than that with low income levels, indicating that the income gap widens global CP inequality; (3) the global annual CO2 emissions reduction potential is 21,831.4034 million tons, of which 60.94%, 22.19%, and 16.87% are expected to be contributed by improving management efficiency, technological progress, and scale efficiency, respectively. In order to further improve TFCP, the high income group should focus on improving management efficiency. The middle-high income group should narrow the technology gap among countries within the group. (c) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study revealed that global carbon productivity (CP) has been gradually increasing, primarily driven by technological progress. However, there is inequality in carbon productivity between countries with different income levels, with higher-income countries experiencing faster growth. The global potential for reducing CO2 emissions is mainly expected to come from improving management efficiency, followed by technological progress and scale efficiency.