Evolution of sustainability and its driving characteristics in typical energy-rich counties in underdeveloped Northwest China

The aim of this study is to measure sustainability and identify its drivers in Pengyang County, which is a typical energy-rich, underdeveloped county in Northwest China. According to thermodynamic theory, an emergy and exergy coupling analysis model is used to identify the sustainable development stage and calculate the 1985–2020 sustainable development capability index (SC). The “pressure-state-response” framework is then used to identify the driving forces of such sustainable development through cointegration analysis. The findings suggest that the county’s sustainability level has fluctuated downward over the past 35 years and is significantly lower than the average level in Chinese. The county moved from a stage of “low self-organizing capacity and low ecological pressure” to that of “low self-organizing capacity and high ecological pressure” in 2014. As its economy grew, the county became more dependent on energy industries, which increased the pressure placed on the environment and made the county’s development less sustainable. Additionally, sustainability is negatively influenced by the proportions of per capita disposable income, secondary industry, and tertiary industry but positively influenced by grassland area and fixed asset investment. The slow economic development and lack of investment in the energy industry, as well as China's recent policies on ecological construction and environmental protection and the major function-oriented zoning strategy, have slowed the exploitation of energy resources in the region. Finally, based on the findings, this research offers some managerial implications for those underdeveloped resource-based regions.