Coordinated economic, energy and environment development across China from 2001 to 2020

With the development of China’s economy, the contradiction between energy, economy and ecological environment is becoming more and more prominent. However, the spatial and temporal evolution of the contradiction system of energy, economy and environment all over China is rarely focused on. This study assesses the provincial coordinated degree of the economy-energy-environment system over the period of 2001–2020 and analyzes their spatial and temporal evolution using principal component analysis (PCA), a coordination degree model, non-parametric Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), and spatial correlation analysis approaches. Results show that provincial coordination degrees from 2001 to 2020 vary between ‘barely balanced’ and ‘superiorly balanced’ with an overall improvement. However, the gap between high and low regional coordination has widen, while middle-level provinces gradually increase and are distributed more evenly. Limited spatial correlation of provincial coordination exists and the clustering level slightly increases over 2001–2020. Additionally, some less-developed regions, which are still staying at the ‘intermediately balanced’ state in 2020, call for attention.