Carbon emissions performance in logistics at the city level

Abstract The importance of good performance in the logistics industry contributing towards a low-carbon economy is widely recognised. However, there are few studies on carbon emissions performance for the logistics industry, especially at the city level. Therefore, this study attempts to analyse the carbon emissions performance of the logistics industry at the city level by examining sixteen cities within Yunnan Province. In particular, the Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and Malmquist index from both the static and dynamic perspective were explored. To further capture the driving factors of the carbon emissions performance in logistics, the Tobit model was applied to perform regression analysis. The results indicate that (1) with regards to static performance, two northwest cities, Nujiang and Diqing, have reached the technological frontier; (2) regarding dynamic performance, although six cities have improved, the average dynamic logistics carbon emissions performance of all the cities decreases by approximately 5.9% from 2011 to 2015; (3) in terms of driving factors, the economic development factor is found to be positively and significantly related to static carbon emissions performance, whereas others indicate negative and significant relationships.