Professor Qi Shaozhou's Collaborative Paper Published in Applied Energy

"Is energy efficiency of Belt and Road Initiative countries catching up or falling behind? Evidence from a panel quantile learning approach", a paper written by Qi Shaozhou, Professor of the Department of World Economics from the School of Economics and Management and Director of the Center for Climate Change and Energy Economics of Wuhan University, was published inApplied Energy, the impact factor of which is 8.426 in 2018 and the five-year impact factor is 8.558.

The English abstract is as follows for your reference:

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has raised concern that it may involve an extensive economic growth pattern at a higher cost of energy and the environment, and China is making a great effort to construct a green BRI, which may improve the general energy efficiency Of BRI countries., it is important to investigate whether backward countries with low energy efficiency are catching up with frontier countries or falling behind. In response, this paper adopts DEA to calculate the total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of the BRI countries And investigates heterogeneous beta-convergence in energy efficiency of BRI counties and its factors. The results indicate that: (1) except for 2009 and 2010, the TFEE along the BRI experienced an increasing trend due to the global finance crisis; BRI countries with low TFEE are catching up with countries with high TFEE, and more significant when the TFEE growth rate is greater; (3) the TFEE converges at a faster rate in high-income BRI Countries and Eastern Europe and West Asia countries; and (4) inadequate innovation ability and a weak R&D absorption capacity may decelerate the energy efficiency convergence rate of BRI countries, especially those with low-income.

The core content of the paper is as follows: The economic development of the countries along the “Belt and Road” is extensive, with very high costs for the environment and resources and low energy efficiency. The energy efficiency varies greatly between countries. The “Belt and Road” initiative may increase the overall energy efficiency of countries along the route and narrow the energy efficiency gap among countries. This article studies whether there is convergence or divergence in the total factor energy efficiency in the “Belt and Road” countries, and among the “Belt and Road” countries and the 15 developed countries of the European Union. According to the development level and geographical location, 60 countries along the “Belt and Road” were further divided into two categories, and then the changes in the convergence rate of the total factor energy efficiency of the two groups were analyzed. It was found that except for the impact of the global financial crisis in 2009 and 2010, the total factor energy efficiency along the “Belt and Road” trend is on the rise; the “Belt and Road” countries with low total factor energy efficiency are catching up with countries with high total energy efficiency.

Professor Qi Shaozhou has been engaged in climate change and energy economic theory as well as policy research for a long time, and established the “Wuhan University Climate Change and Energy Economy (CCEE)” innovation team.Applied Energyis a SSCI&SCI journal, which publishes innovation results in energy conversion and conservation, and optimal use of energy resources.