IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v121y2023ics0140988323001706.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying the health benefits of improving environmental efficiency: A case study from coal power plants in China

Author

Listed:
  • Nakaishi, Tomoaki
  • Nagashima, Fumiya
  • Kagawa, Shigemi
  • Nansai, Keisuke
  • Chatani, Satoru

Abstract

It is unclear whether improving the environmental efficiency (output per input) of coal power plants mitigate premature deaths due to air pollution. This study proposed an interdisciplinary framework based on a frontier method to quantify the health benefits of improving the environmental efficiency of power plants. A case study based on the input and output data of 316 coal power plants in China in 2010 was conducted to verify the functionality of the proposed framework. The main findings were as follows: (1) the environmental efficiency improvement of power plants can play an important role in mitigating health hazards caused by air pollutants; (2) the mitigation potential of premature deaths has spatial variations; and (3) the emission reduction potential of air pollutants is not correlated with the mitigation potential of premature death at the provincial level. These results highlight the importance of understanding the regional potential for health hazard mitigation as well as the crucial need to implement suitable policies for improving environmental efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Nakaishi, Tomoaki & Nagashima, Fumiya & Kagawa, Shigemi & Nansai, Keisuke & Chatani, Satoru, 2023. "Quantifying the health benefits of improving environmental efficiency: A case study from coal power plants in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323001706
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988323001706
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2023.106672?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Long, Xingle & Wu, Chao & Zhang, Jijian & Zhang, Jing, 2018. "Environmental efficiency for 192 thermal power plants in the Yangtze River Delta considering heterogeneity: A metafrontier directional slacks-based measure approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3962-3971.
    2. Dan Tong & Qiang Zhang & Steven J. Davis & Fei Liu & Bo Zheng & Guannan Geng & Tao Xue & Meng Li & Chaopeng Hong & Zifeng Lu & David G. Streets & Dabo Guan & Kebin He, 2018. "Targeted emission reductions from global super-polluting power plant units," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 59-68, January.
    3. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    4. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    5. Qin, Quande & Li, Xin & Li, Li & Zhen, Wei & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Air emissions perspective on energy efficiency: An empirical analysis of China’s coastal areas," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P1), pages 604-614.
    6. Kaneko, Shinji & Fujii, Hidemichi & Sawazu, Naoya & Fujikura, Ryo, 2010. "Financial allocation strategy for the regional pollution abatement cost of reducing sulfur dioxide emissions in the thermal power sector in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2131-2141, May.
    7. Pu Wang & Cheng-Kuan Lin & Yi Wang & Dachuan Liu & Dunjiang Song & Tong Wu, 2021. "Location-specific co-benefits of carbon emissions reduction from coal-fired power plants in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Eguchi, Shogo & Takayabu, Hirotaka & Lin, Chen, 2021. "Sources of inefficient power generation by coal-fired thermal power plants in China: A metafrontier DEA decomposition approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    9. Dan Tong & Guannan Geng & Qiang Zhang & Jing Cheng & Xinying Qin & Chaopeng Hong & Kebin He & Steven J. Davis, 2021. "Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation depend on strategic power plant retirements and pollution controls," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(12), pages 1077-1083, December.
    10. Long, Xingle & Sun, Mei & Cheng, Faxin & Zhang, Jijian, 2017. "Convergence analysis of eco-efficiency of China’s cement manufacturers through unit root test of panel data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 709-717.
    11. Long, Xingle & Zhao, Xicang & Cheng, Faxin, 2015. "The comparison analysis of total factor productivity and eco-efficiency in China's cement manufactures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 61-66.
    12. Lee, Taehwee & Yeo, Gi-Tae & Thai, Vinh V., 2014. "Environmental efficiency analysis of port cities: Slacks-based measure data envelopment analysis approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 82-88.
    13. Luo, Yusen & Lu, Zhengnan & Long, Xingle, 2020. "Heterogeneous effects of endogenous and foreign innovation on CO2 emissions stochastic convergence across China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    14. K.R. Shanmugam & Praveen Kulshreshtha, 2005. "Efficiency analysis of coal-based thermal power generation in India during post-reform era," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 23(1), pages 15-28.
    15. Shogo Eguchi, 2022. "CO 2 Reduction Potential from Efficiency Improvements in China’s Coal-Fired Thermal Power Generation: A Combined Approach of Metafrontier DEA and LMDI," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, March.
    16. Tang, Kai & Yang, Lin & Zhang, Jianwu, 2016. "Estimating the regional total factor efficiency and pollutants’ marginal abatement costs in China: A parametric approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 230-240.
    17. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    18. Nakaishi, Tomoaki & Takayabu, Hirotaka & Eguchi, Shogo, 2021. "Environmental efficiency analysis of China's coal-fired power plants considering heterogeneity in power generation company groups," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    19. Florence Appiah-Twum & Xingle Long, 2023. "Human Capital, Trade Competitiveness and Environmental Efficiency Convergence Across Asia Pacific Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(1), pages 109-132, May.
    20. Nakaishi, Tomoaki, 2021. "Developing effective CO2 and SO2 mitigation strategy based on marginal abatement costs of coal-fired power plants in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    21. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Ruiyang & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Digitalization and energy-saving and emission reduction in Chinese cities: Synergy between industrialization and digitalization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 345(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nakaishi, Tomoaki, 2021. "Developing effective CO2 and SO2 mitigation strategy based on marginal abatement costs of coal-fired power plants in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    2. Nakaishi, Tomoaki & Takayabu, Hirotaka & Eguchi, Shogo, 2021. "Environmental efficiency analysis of China's coal-fired power plants considering heterogeneity in power generation company groups," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. Shogo Eguchi, 2022. "CO 2 Reduction Potential from Efficiency Improvements in China’s Coal-Fired Thermal Power Generation: A Combined Approach of Metafrontier DEA and LMDI," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Eguchi, Shogo & Takayabu, Hirotaka & Lin, Chen, 2021. "Sources of inefficient power generation by coal-fired thermal power plants in China: A metafrontier DEA decomposition approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    5. Zhang, Ning & Zhao, Yu & Wang, Na, 2022. "Is China's energy policy effective for power plants? Evidence from the 12th Five-Year Plan energy saving targets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Chen, Nengcheng & Xu, Lei & Chen, Zeqiang, 2017. "Environmental efficiency analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone using super efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) and tobit models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 659-671.
    7. Noel Uri, 2003. "The Effect of Incentive Regulation in Telecommunications in the United States," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 169-191, May.
    8. Badunenko, Oleg & Galeotti, Marzio & Hunt, Lester C., 2021. "Better to grow or better to improve? Measuring environmental efficiency in OECD countries with a Stochastic Environmental Kuznets Frontier," FEEM Working Papers 316226, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    9. Ahn, Heinz & Clermont, Marcel & Langner, Julia, 2023. "Comparative performance analysis of frontier-based efficiency measurement methods – A Monte Carlo simulation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(1), pages 294-312.
    10. Musshoff, Oliver & Hirschauer, Norbert & Herink, Michael, 2009. "Bei welchen Problemstrukturen sind Data-Envelopment-Analysen sinnvoll? Eine kritische Würdigung," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 58(02), pages 1-11, February.
    11. Caitlin O’Loughlin & Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2023. "Methodologies for assessing government efficiency," Chapters, in: António Afonso & João Tovar Jalles & Ana Venâncio (ed.), Handbook on Public Sector Efficiency, chapter 4, pages 72-101, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Gil, Guilherme Dôco Roberti & Costa, Marcelo Azevedo & Lopes, Ana Lúcia Miranda & Mayrink, Vinícius Diniz, 2017. "Spatial statistical methods applied to the 2015 Brazilian energy distribution benchmarking model: Accounting for unobserved determinants of inefficiencies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 373-383.
    13. Kammoun Rabeb, 2018. "The Technical Efficiency of Tunisian Ports: Comparing Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis Scores," Logistics, Supply Chain, Sustainability and Global Challenges, Sciendo, vol. 9(2), pages 73-84, October.
    14. Chin‐wei Huang & Hsiao‐Yin Chen, 2023. "Using nonradial metafrontier data envelopment analysis to evaluate the metatechnology and metafactor ratios for the Taiwanese hotel industry," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 1904-1919, June.
    15. W. Cooper & C. Lovell, 2011. "History lessons," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 193-200, October.
    16. Nykamp, Stefan & Andor, Mark & Hurink, Johann L., 2012. "‘Standard’ incentive regulation hinders the integration of renewable energy generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 222-237.
    17. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Teresa Balaguer-Coll & Marko Petrović & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2020. "Which estimator to measure local governments’ cost efficiency? The case of Spanish municipalities," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 51-82, March.
    18. Avkiran, Necmi K. & Rowlands, Terry, 2008. "How to better identify the true managerial performance: State of the art using DEA," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 317-324, April.
    19. Vittadini, Giorgio & Sturaro, Caterina & Folloni, Giuseppe, 2022. "Non-Cognitive Skills and Cognitive Skills to measure school efficiency," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    20. Julia Schaefer & Marcel Clermont, 2018. "Stochastic non-smooth envelopment of data for multi-dimensional output," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 139-154, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:121:y:2023:i:c:s0140988323001706. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.