Analysis of the Eco-Efficiency Change of Chinese Provinces: An Approach Based on Effect Matrix Analysis

Eco-efficiency, being a matter of concern all over the world, is gaining increasing attention in the fields of economic and environment. This paper just investigates the relationship between economic development and environmental sustainability in Chinese provinces focused on the eco-efficiency calculation. In this paper, by the index of eco-efficiency into economic effect (er) and environment effect (ee), thus an effect matrix is framed; and a new method that can analyze the relationship between the economic development and environment sustainability is outlined and applied to evaluate the eco-efficiency change of 31 provinces of China during 2006-2010. Empirical results show that Beijing city is found to be the only one that has improved its eco-efficiency in the absolutely strong sustainability paradigm at all three environmental impacts; while most of other areas have taken on a paradigm of weak sustainability at some specific environmental impact; the country as a whole presents a weak sustainability paradigm for its solid waste production and the absolutely strong sustainability one both in its waste water and SO2 emission production. The effect matrix analysis constitutes a new way to assess the change of the eco-efficiency in an area, which seems very promising to judge the state of an area's eco-efficiency change toward sustainability and provides the sound foundation to support policy making.