Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947

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Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Economy and carbon dioxide emissions effects of energy structures in the

world: Evidence based on SBM-DEA model
Xiaoyong Lin a,b, Xiaopeng Zhu a,b, Yongming Han a,b,⁎, Zhiqiang Geng a,b,⁎, Lin Liu c
a
College of Information Science & Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China
b
Engineering Research Center of Intelligent PSE, Ministry of Education in China, Beijing, China
c
College of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• An economy and CO2 emissions evalua-

tion model based on SBM-DEA is pro-
posed.
• Energy structures of 29 countries and
regions are estimated and optimized.
• Overall efficiency of developed coun-
tries or regions is well.
• Energy efficiency of inefficient countries
or regions can be improved.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Nowadays, the increasing global warming phenomenon caused by large carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has a
Received 18 March 2020 huge impact on the economic and social sustainable development in the world. And CO2 emissions come mainly
Received in revised form 17 April 2020 from the burning of fossil energy, such as oil, natural gas and coal. Therefore, a novel economy and CO2 emissions
Accepted 22 April 2020
evaluation model based on the slacks-based measure integrating the data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) is
Available online 28 April 2020
proposed to analyze and optimize energy structures of some countries and regions in the world. The consump-
Editor: Pavlos Kassomenos tion of oil, natural gas and coal are inputs of the proposed method. In addition, per capita gross domestic product
(GDP) value is the desirable output and CO2 emission is the undesirable output. Then the economy and CO2 emis-
Keywords: sions evaluation model of some countries and regions in the world is built. The results show that the overall ef-
Economic improvement ficiency of developed countries and regions is higher than that of developing countries. Moreover, due to the
Carbon dioxide emissions optimal configuration of slack variables of inputs and the undesirable output, the efficiency values of some inef-
Energy optimization ficient countries and regions can be improved greatly. Furthermore, whether in 2017 or 2018, the average effi-
Energy structure ciency values of Europe and Oceania are both relatively high, and these two years average efficiency values of
SBM-DEA
Asia are all the lowest among the five continents.
Countries
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

⁎ Corresponding authors at: Engineering Research Center of Intelligent PSE, Ministry of Education in China, Beijing, China.
E-mail addresses: hanym@mail.buct.edu.cn (Y. Han), gengzhiqiang@mail.buct.edu.cn (Z. Geng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138947
0048-9697/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947

1. Introduction
Global warming phenomenon caused by large carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions has a profound effect on economic and social sustainable de-
velopment in the world. In 2018, the CO2 emissions of the top five coun-
tries including China, United States, India, Russia and Japan are 9428.7
million tons (Mt.), 5145.2 Mt., 2479.1 Mt., 1550.8 Mt. and 1148.4 Mt., re-
spectively (Petroleum, 2019). Meanwhile, the gross domestic product
(GDP) values of these five countries are $13,407.4 billion, $20,494.1 bil-
lion, $2716.7 billion, $1630.7 billion and $4971.9 billion, respectively
(International F M, 2019). However, the economic growth means
more energy consumption, which results in more CO2 emissions. In
2013, 12.3% of the world's total GDP values were created by China. But
Chinese CO2 emissions account for about 27.1% of the world's CO2 emis-
sions (Li et al., 2017). Especially in recent years, most CO2 emissions
come from the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas and coal
(Marjanovic et al., 2016). In 2015, the global CO2 emissions from the
fuel combustion reached 32.29 billion tons (Xu et al., 2018). And the
biggest demand of the fossil fuel is coal, which will remain the second
largest primary fuel source until 2030 (Wolde-Rufael, 2010; Jinke
et al., 2008). Besides, most fossil fuels are non-renewable (Han et al.,
2020). And many energy optimization and analysis methods are used
to improve the energy efficiency of fossil fuels (Geng et al., 2020). There-
fore, it is necessary to control CO2 emissions during economic and social
sustainable development in the world.
The efficiency evaluation method based on the stochastic frontier
approach (SFA) has been widely used in the economy and CO2 emis-
sions analysis. Meeusen et al. proposed the SFA to evaluate the effi-
ciency of decision making units (DMUs) (Meeusen and van Den
Broeck, 1977). Sun et al. used the SFA to evaluate the greenhouse gas
emission efficiency of 26 Chinese industrial sectors (Sun et al., 2019).
Marin et al. analyzed the electricity consumption of four traditional
‘white goods’ in ten European Union countries, and used the SFA to dis-
entangle the technical efficiency from overall energy saving (Marin and
Palma, 2017). Odeck et al. analyzed the mean technical efficiency (MTE)
score variations of seaports, and introduced the variation of the MTE
score into the SFA (Odeck and Brathen, 2012). Carvalho et al. investi-
gated the economies of size and scope in the Portuguese water sector
based on the application of Bayesian and classical statistics to make in-
ference in the SFA (Carvalho and Marques, 2016).
However, the SFA method does not taken the production functions
and technical inefficiencies into consideration. Therefore, Charnes
et al. proposed the data envelopment analysis (DEA) in 1978, which
only needs to consider input and output data (Charnes et al., 1978). In
addition, the DEA has been widely applied in the energy (Geng et al.,
2019) and economy (Halkos and Polemis, 2018) efficiency analysis.
2020). Chang et al. analyzed the economic and environmental efficiency
of 27 global airlines in 2010 based on the SBM-DEA (Chang et al., 2014).
Therefore, this paper presents a novel economy and CO2 emissions
evaluation model based on the SBM-DEA to evaluate and optimize en-
ergy structures of 29 countries and regions in the world. The consump-
tion of oil, natural gas and coal of these countries and regions are inputs
of the proposed method. And the per capita GDP value is the desirable
output and CO2 emission is the undesirable outputs. Then the economy
and CO2 emissions evaluation model of some countries and regions in
the world is built. The results show that the overall efficiency of devel-
oped countries and regions is better than that of developing countries.
Meanwhile, due to the optimal configuration of slack variables of inputs
and the undesirable output, the energy structures of inefficient coun-
tries can be optimized greatly. For example, the Chinese efficiency can
be improved in 2018 by reducing 6266 Mt. CO2 emissions, 425 million
tons oil equivalent (Mtoe) oil, 161 Mtoe natural gas and 1269 Mtoe coal.
Our study is divided into five parts. After introducing and reviewing
the relevant literatures in Section 1, the research method is described in
Section 2. Section 3 introduces the economy and CO2 emissions evalua-
tion model. And the energy structures are analyzed and optimized in
Section 4. In the end, the conclusions are drawn in Section 5.
2. Slacks-based measure integrating data envelopment analysis
2.1. The DEA model
There are two types of the DEA model. The former is the radial
model, and the latter is the non-radial model. The Charnes, Cooper &
Rhodes (CCR) model is a radial model, which is the most representative
model while estimating the energy efficiency. The dual programming of
the CCR model of the DEA is shown as Eq. (1).
minθ
8 X n
>
> λ j X j þ sþj ¼ θX j0
>
>
>
>
>
< j¼1
ð1Þ
X n
s:t: λ j Y j −s−
>
> j ¼ Y j0
>
>
>
>
j¼1
>
: λ j ; sþj ; s−
j ≥0; j ¼ 1; 2; …; n
where Xj0 represents the input vector of the j-th DMU and Yj0 means the
j-th output vector. λj is the weight coefficient of input and output in-
−
dexes. θ is the efficiency value. s+ j and sj are slack variables. When θ
+ −
= 1 and sj = sj = 0 of one DMU, which means the DMU is effective.
−
When θ b 1 and s+ j ≠ 0, sj ≠ 0 of one DMU, which means the DMU is in-

Mousavi-Avval et al. used the DEA to analyze the technical and scale ef- effective. However, the relaxation of input-output cannot be measured
ficiency of the canola production in Golestan province of Iran (Mousavi- by the DEA model, and the improvement direction of the inefficient
Avval et al., 2011). Han et al. proposed the DEA cross model to analyze DMU cannot be obtained. Therefore, Tone proposed the SBM-DEA
and evaluate the CO2 emissions of Chinese industries (Han et al., model (Tone, 2001, 2004).
2018). Amara et al. combined the DEA and fuzzy set qualitative compar-
ative analysis (FSQCA) to evaluate the research efficiency of Canadian 2.2. The SBM-DEA model
scholars in the management field (Amara et al., 2019).
The output variables of the DEA are desirable indexes (Ramanathan, The SBM-DEA model is shown as Eqs. (2)–(5).
2003), namely, the more the input, the more the output. However, the
−
congestion or slacks problems of the input and output elements are 1 m s
1− ∑i¼1 i
not considered in the traditional DEA models. Therefore, Tone proposed m x
ρ ¼ min  g
io
b
 ð2Þ
the slacks-based measure integrating the data envelopment analysis 1 s1 sr s2 s
1þ ∑r¼1 g þ ∑r¼1 br
(SBM-DEA) (Tone, 2001), which fully takes undesirable outputs and s1 þ s2 yro yro
slack variables into account. The SBM-DEA has been widely used to eval-
uate and optimize the energy structure (Guo et al., 2017; Shang et al., xo ¼ Xλ þ s− ð3Þ
2020). Cecchini et al. employed the SBM-DEA integrating the life cycle
analysis (LCA) to estimate the environmental efficiency and emission ygo ¼ Y g λ−sg ð4Þ
reduction potential of 10 dairy cattle farms in Italy (Cecchini et al.,
2018). Pishgar-Komleh et al. applied the SBM-DEA to maximize the ef-
ficiency of winter wheat production in Poland (Pishgar-Komleh et al., ybo ¼ Y b λ þ sb ð5Þ
 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947 3

Table 1 tively. Three matrices X, Yg and Yb are defined as X = [x1, …, xn]ϵ Rm∗n,
Common CO2 emissions. Yg = [yg1, …, ygn] ϵ Rs1∗n and Yb = [yb1, …, ybn] ϵ Rs2∗n. The Eq. (2) strictly
Energy CO2 emissions decreasing, and 0 b ρ ∗ ≤ 1.
Raw coal 2.07
When ρ ∗ = 1, s− = 0, sg = 0 and sb = 0 of one DMU, which means
Crude oil 3.07 the DMU is effective. When ρ ∗ b 1 of one DMU, which means the DMU is
Natural gas 21.84 ineffective. The DMU can be improved by reducing the surplus of inputs
and undesirable outputs, and increasing the shortage of desirable out-
puts. The relevant formulas are shown as Eqs. (6)–(8).

s− ≥0; sg ≥0; sb ≥0; λ ≥0 xo ←xo −s− ð6Þ

The vectors s−and sb represent the slack variables of inputs and

ygo ←ygo þ sg ð7Þ
undesirable outputs, respectively, while sg represents the slack vari-
ables of desirable outputs. Each DMU has m inputs, s1 desirable out-
puts and s 2 undesirable outputs. And these three factors are
represented by three vectors with x ϵ Rm, yg ϵ Rs1 and yb ϵ Rs2, respec- ybo ←ybo −sb ð8Þ

Fig. 1. The data of some countries and regions in 2017.

Fig. 2. The data of some countries and regions in 2018.

4 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947

Table 2
The efficiency and slack variables of 29 countries and regions in 2017.

Countries and Regions Efficiency Input Undesirable output

Oil Natural gas Coal CO2 emissions

Czech Republic 1.000 0 0 0 0

France 1.000 0 0 0 0
Argentina 1.000 0 0 0 0
Rumania 1.000 0 0 0 0
Morocco 1.000 0 0 0 0
UK 0.824 0 20 0 62
Spain 0.651 23 6 0 92
Australia 0.600 19 14 2 110
Canada 0.527 17 43 7 159
Taiwan 0.305 29 9 16 127
Germany 0.218 71 45 27 396
South Africa 0.172 17 1 54 265
South Korea 0.153 83 23 45 379
Malaysia 0.151 22 23 8 137
Iran 0.137 58 132 1 53
Brazil 0.136 82 16 10 268
Japan 0.115 119 61 64 689
Mexico 0.112 47 46 9 283
Egypt 0.095 24 29 1 133
Turkey 0.093 31 28 22 234
Thailand 0.089 42 28 9 184
Ukraine 0.056 6 17 16 117
Vietnam 0.050 15 5 18 125
USA 0.047 593 418 194 3205
Pakistan 0.045 18 23 5 120
Russia 0.032 99 248 51 968
Indonesia 0.027 52 21 37 335
China 0.006 405 136 1258 6133
India 0.005 151 30 277 1540

3. Economy and carbon dioxide emissions evaluation model

3.1. Data analysis

To analyze the resource consumption of 29 countries and regions,

Fig. 3. The evaluation process of economy and CO2 emissions.
the consumption of oil, natural gas and coal in 2017 and 2018 are
regarded as inputs, and the per capita GDP values are regarded as desir-
able outputs. In addition, the CO2 emissions are taken as undesirable
outputs. The data are mainly from BP statistical review of world energy
2019 (Petroleum, 2019) and World economic outlook database
(International F M, 2019, 2018). Common CO2 emissions factors
(Eggleston et al., 2006) are shown in Table 1. The unit of oil, natural
gas, and coal are Mtoe, the per capita GDP values are dollars and CO2
emissions are Mt. Besides, the slack variable of the per capita GDP in

Fig. 4. The efficiency spatial distribution map of all countries and regions in 2017.
 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947
Fig. 5. Comparison diagram of UK and France in 2017.
every country or region is too small (equal to 0 when accurate to
integer's position). Therefore, the per capita GDP slacks are hardly men-
tioned in the following paragraphs.
The data of some countries and regions in 2017 are shown in Fig. 1.
The per capita GDP values of developed countries and regions are appar-
ently higher than those of developing countries. Besides, there are more
CO2 emissions and energy consumption in developed countries and
regions.
The energy (oil, natural gas and coal) consumption, per capita GDP
values and CO2 emissions of some countries and regions in 2018 are
shown in Fig. 2. It can be seen that the situation in 2018 is similar to
that in 2017. Generally, both energy consumption and CO2 emissions
of developed countries and regions are more than those in developing
countries. Similarly, the per capita GDP values are higher in developed
countries and regions.
3.2. The evaluation process of economy and CO2 emissions
As can be seen in Fig. 3, the evaluation process of economy and CO2
emissions can be elaborated as follow:
Step 1: Collecting and classifying the relevant data. The data contains
the primary energy consumption, per capita GDP and CO2 emissions
of 29 countries and regions. And the data is divided into inputs, de-
sirable outputs and undesirable outputs.
Step 2: Calculating the data using the SBM-DEA model. The data ob-
tained in Step 1 is calculated and analyzed by the SBM-DEA model.
Fig. 6. Comparison diagram of Rumania and Turkey in 2017.
5
Step 3: Building the economy and CO2 emissions evaluated model.
Step 4: The efficiency values and slack variables of 29 countries and
regions are obtained by the SBM-DEA model.
Step 5: If the efficiency value equals to 1, and slack variables are all
equal to 0, which means the country or region is effective. Oppo-
sitely, the country or region is ineffective. Then, the inputs and the
undesirable outputs are adjusted according to slack variables.
Step 6: According to the step 5, the efficiency values and energy
structures of ineffective countries and regions can be improved
and optimized.
4. Case study: economy and carbon dioxide emissions analysis of 29
countries and regions
4.1. Energy structures analysis and optimization in 2017
After calculating the relevant data of 29 countries and regions based
on the SBM-DEA model, an efficiency spatial distribution map in the
world is charted in Fig. 4. And the efficiency values and slack variables
of 29 countries and regions are shown in Table 2.
As can be seen from Fig. 4 and Table 2 that many developed coun-
tries and regions are above the mean horizontal line, and lots of devel-
oping countries are below the mean horizontal line, which means that
efficiency values of most developed countries and regions are higher
than those in developing countries. And developed countries do better
in economy and CO2 emissions than developing countries. In general,
the slack variables of CO2 emissions in the world are relatively large.
Through the optimal configuration of slack variables in Table 2, the en-
ergy structures of several inefficient developed countries and develop-
ing countries are analyzed and optimized.
According to inputs and undesirable outputs of developed countries,
CO2 emissions and energy consumption of UK and France are shown in
Fig. 5.
As can be seen from Table 2 and Fig. 5 that the efficiency values of
France and UK are 1 and 0.824, respectively. The per capita GDP values
of France are $39,869, and UK are $39,735 (International F M, 2018). In
terms of CO2 emissions, there are 403.2 Mt. in UK, and France are 321.4
Mt. In the natural gas consumption, UK reaches 67.8 Mtoe, and France
reaches 38.5 Mtoe. Oil, coal and the per capita GDP of these two coun-
tries are almost same, and slack variables of them are both 0. The slack
variables of natural gas consumption and CO2 emissions in UK reach
20 Mtoe and 62 Mt., respectively. From the comparison between these
two countries, the reason why the efficiency value of UK is b1 is that
there are excessive natural gas consumption and CO2 emissions. By
adjusting CO2 emissions and natural gas consumption reasonably
based on the slack variables, the efficiency value of UK can be improved.
6 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947

Similarly, through inputs and undesirable outputs of two developing Table 3

countries with Turkey and Rumania, the CO2 emissions, energy con- The efficiency and slack variables of 29 countries and regions in 2018.

sumption and slack variables of these two countries can be seen clearly Countries and Regions Efficiency Input Undesirable output
in Fig. 6. Oil Natural gas Coal CO2 emissions
As can be seen in Table 2 and Fig. 6 that Rumania reaches 1 and
Czech Republic 1.000 0 0 0 0
Turkey reaches 0.093 in the efficiency value. The per capita GDP values
France 1.000 0 0 0 0
of Rumania and Turkey are $10,757 and $10,512, respectively UK 1.000 0 0 0 0
(International F M, 2018). In terms of CO2 emissions, there are 388.5 Argentina 1.000 0 0 0 0
Mt. in Turkey and 72.6 Mt. in Rumania. In the coal consumption, Rumania 1.000 0 0 0 0
Turkey reaches 39.5 Mtoe and Rumania reaches 5.4 Mtoe. Turkey Morocco 1.000 0 0 0 0
Spain 0.681 21 6 0 86
reaches 44.3 Mtoe and Rumania reaches 9.6 Mtoe in the natural gas con- Australia 0.514 23 16 5 136
sumption. In the oil consumption, there is 49.2 Mtoe and 10.3 Mtoe in Canada 0.503 21 50 4 179
Turkey and Rumania, respectively. And the slack variables of oil, gas, Taiwan 0.266 29 10 17 133
coal and CO2 emissions of Turkey are 31 Mtoe, 28 Mtoe, 22 Mtoe, and Germany 0.220 67 45 25 376
Iran 0.176 59 143 1 54
234 Mt., respectively. Therefore, the efficiency value of Turkey can be
South Africa 0.156 16 1 56 268
optimized by reducing CO2 emissions, oil, coal and natural gas con- Malaysia 0.140 23 23 10 143
sumption reasonably. South Korea 0.132 82 28 48 398
Mexico 0.114 46 48 7 275
4.2. Energy structures analysis and optimization in 2018 Brazil 0.112 84 16 10 264
Japan 0.105 115 62 64 682
Thailand 0.085 43 28 9 187
After calculating the relevant data of 29 countries and regions based Egypt 0.080 22 34 2 141
on the SBM-DEA model, an efficiency spatial distribution map in the Turkey 0.072 31 26 25 240
world is charted in Fig. 7. And the efficiency values and slack variables Ukraine 0.058 6 17 17 118
USA 0.044 605 464 186 3302
of 29 countries and regions are shown in Table 3.
Vietnam 0.043 16 5 22 144
As can be seen from Fig. 7 that there are six efficient countries or re- Pakistan 0.030 16 25 7 127
gions in the world. Many developed countries and regions are above the Russia 0.030 99 261 54 1011
mean horizontal line, and lots of developing countries are below the Indonesia 0.022 55 22 40 354
mean horizontal line in Table 3, which means that efficiency values of China 0.005 425 161 1269 6266
India 0.004 159 33 301 1649
most developed countries and regions are higher than those in develop-
ing countries. And developed countries do better in the economy and
CO2 emissions than developing countries. In general, the slack variables
of CO2 emissions in the world are relatively large. Through the optimal 20.3 Mtoe. The coal consumption of Czech Republic is still less than that
configuration of slack variables in Table 3, the energy structures of sev- of Taiwan. In CO2 emissions, the gap between these two countries is rel-
eral inefficient developed countries and developing countries are ana- atively large, with 103.2 Mt. in Czech Republic and 286 Mt. in Taiwan. It
lyzed and optimized. can be seen from Fig. 8, the slack variables of oil, gas, coal and CO2 emis-
Based on inputs and undesirable outputs of developed countries and sions in Taiwan are 29 Mtoe, 10 Mtoe, 17 Mtoe and 133 Mt., respec-
regions, the CO2 emissions and energy consumption of Taiwan and tively. Therefore, the efficiency value of Taiwan can be improved by
Czech Republic are shown in Fig. 8. reducing oil, coal and natural gas and CO2 emissions reasonably based
As can be seen from Table 3 that Czech Republic reaches 1 and on the slack variables.
Taiwan reaches 0.266 in efficiency values. The per capita GDP values Similarly, through inputs and undesirable outputs of three countries
of Czech Republic are $22,850, while those of Taiwan are $24,971 with UK, Argentina and China, the CO2 emissions, energy consumption
(International F M, 2019). In terms of the oil consumption, Czech and slack variables of three countries can be seen clearly in Fig. 9.
Republic reaches 10.6 Mtoe and Taiwan reaches 50 Mtoe. In the natural As can be seen from Table 3 and Fig. 9, the efficiency values of UK
gas consumption, Czech Republic reaches 6.9 Mtoe, and Taiwan reaches and Argentina are both equal to 1. Meanwhile, the slack variables of

Fig. 7. The efficiency spatial distribution map of all countries and regions in 2018.
 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947 7

Fig. 8. Comparison diagram of Taiwan and Czech Republic in 2018.

these two countries are all equal to 0. The per capita GDP values of
UK, Argentina and China are $42,558, $11,627 and $9608, respec-
tively. After the comparison, the per capita GDP values of Argentina
are much lower than those of UK. But these two countries are all ef-
ficient in efficiency values, the reason is that the energy consumption
and CO2 emissions of Argentina are both small. Therefore, Argentina
should keep optimizing the energy structure to increase per capita
GDP and control CO2 emissions reasonably. The Chinese efficiency
value is very low. Besides, slack variables of inputs and CO2 emis-
sions in China are very large, which caused the low efficiency in
China. In recent years, Chinese government has also made great ef-
forts to reduce CO2 emissions by issuing a series of laws and regula-
tions. And Chinese governments try replacing the primary energy
with the clean energy gradually without affecting the economy,
which is a long process. It can be seen that UK is efficient, which
means its energy structure is rational. The reason is that UK has rea-
sonably replaced fossil energy with the clean energy by adopting ad-
vanced technologies and equipment. Therefore, both China and
Argentina should learn the advanced technologies from UK to re-
place the fossil energy with the clean energy reasonably without af-
fecting the economy.
4.3. The comprehensive analysis in 2017 and 2018
Based on 29 countries or regions belonging to different continents,
the average efficiency values of each continent in 2017 and 2018 are
shown in Figs. 10 and 11, respectively.
As can be seen that the average efficiency values of all continents in
Figs. 10 and 11, the average efficiency values of developed countries and
regions have increased from 2017 to 2018. Whether in 2017 or 2018,
the average efficiency values of Europe and Oceania are both relatively
high and these two years average efficiency values of Asia are all the
lowest among five continents. Because most of countries in Asia are de-
veloping countries, and their technologies are not mature enough. To
sum up, the overall situation in 29 countries or regions remained stable
in two years, with no major changes.
5. Conclusion
This paper presents a novel economic and CO2 emissions evaluation
method based on the SBM-DEA model to analyze and evaluate the eco-
nomic benefit and CO2 emissions of 29 countries and regions in the
world. The primary energy with oil, natural gas and coal of 29 countries

Fig. 9. Comparison diagram of UK, Argentina and China in 2018.

8 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947

Fig. 10. The average efficiency of each continent in 2017.

and regions are inputs of the proposed method. And the per capita GDP
values are desirable outputs and CO2 emissions are undesirable outputs
to build the economy and CO2 emissions evaluation model of 29 coun-
tries and regions in the world. The results show that the overall effi-
ciency values of developed countries and regions are higher than
those of developing countries. Meanwhile, due to the optimal configu-
ration in slack variables of inputs and the undesirable output, the ineffi-
cient countries or regions can be improved greatly. For example, the
efficiency value of UK in 2017 can be improved by reducing 20 Mtoe
natural gas and 62 Mt. CO2 emissions. And China can reduce 425 Mtoe
oil, 161 Mtoe natural gas, 1269 Mtoe coal and 6266 Mt. CO2 emissions
to improve the energy efficiency. As a result, all inefficient countries or
regions can realize the economic growth and social sustainable
development by adjusting energy structures and CO2 emissions reason-
ably. Moreover, whether in 2017 or 2018, the average efficiency values
of Europe and Oceania are both relatively high and these two years av-
erage efficiency values of Asia are all the lowest among five continents.
In the future work, the DEA cross model will be employed based on
the SBM model to optimize the existing results. And some pollutants
and the sulfur emissions from different countries and regions will be
taken into account and analyzed.
Nomenclature
CO2 Carbon dioxide
SBM-DEA Slacks-based measure integrating data envelopment analysis
GDP Gross domestic product

Fig. 11. The average efficiency of each continent in 2018.

 X. Lin et al. / Science of the Total Environment 729 (2020) 138947 9

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