Measuring CO2 emissions performance of China's construction industry: A global Malmquist index analysis

Abstract Rapid urbanization in China has made the construction sector become a significant industry for CO2 emissions. Accurately measuring the CO2 emissions performance of the construction industry is a key to CO2 emissions management and the basis for successful implementation of the national carbon neutral strategy. From a total-factor production perspective, CO2 emission performance refers to the degree to which the desirable outputs are maximized, and the CO2 emissions are minimized under a certain level of inputs in production activities. To measure the dynamic evolution of CO2 emission performance and its reasons more reasonably, a global Malmquist CO2 emissions performance index (GMCPI) that can evaluate CO2 emission performance of multi-input and multi-output production process is proposed in this study. By using this index, the CO2 emissions performance of the construction industry in China's 30 provinces from 2004 to 2016 was investigated with three key findings. First, the overall CO2 emissions performance was improved by 13.6% during the study period, mainly contributed by technological progress rather than the increase of technical efficiency. Second, an imbalance growth of CO2 emissions performance was observed in different regions. The performance in the eastern region ranked the best, with an average annual increase of 14.5%. Third, the reasons contributing to different levels of CO2 emissions performance in different provinces were explained according to the decomposition of GMCPI. Thirteen provinces are the slow-efficiency-growth type with low technical efficiency change(EFFCH) and low technology change(TECHCH). Five provinces are the technology-driven type with high TECHCH and low EFFCH, four provinces are the technology-management dual-driven type with high EFFCH and high TECHCH. Eight provinces are the management-driven type with high EFFCH and low TECHCH. China's construction industry should further improve the overall CO2 emission performance by strengthening the driving role of technological progress and promoting the exchange of advanced management experience to reduce regional differences.