Study on the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics and future trends of China’s coal mining and dressing industry green total factor productivity

The coal mining and dressing industry provides a major energy resource for socio-economic development, but causes non-negligible environmental pollution. In the background of sustainability, the study of coal mining and dressing industry green total factor productivity (CMDG) is significant to ensure the stable growth of coal while reducing pollution. This paper aims to reconstruct the evaluation system of coal production efficiency from the perspective of pollutant emission reduction, measure CMDG from 2003 to 2019 with China as a case study, and examine its spatio-temporal evolution features and future spatial pattern to explore its enhancement path. To analyze the research problem, this paper applies research methodologies such as time series global principal component analysis (GPCA), global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index model, standard deviation ellipse (SDE) model, and grey model. The results and conclusions can be summarized in four points: From 2003 to 2019, China’s CMDG increased by 1.57% per year, indicating that its coal production is becoming more efficient and cleaner. (2) The spatial distribution of CMDG exhibits its highest intensity in the center area, followed by the eastern area, and its lowest intensity in the western area. (3) The overall spatial center of gravity (SCG) of CMDG in China is projected to shift by 44.92 km to the southeast between 2019 and 2040. (4) The use of water resources played a significant role in Chinese CMDG. With regard to policy recommendations, this research proposes policy recommendations to improve CMDG from four aspects based on empirical results.