Optimal R&D investment path for China to fulfill its emission intensity target and the corresponding economic growth path
Received date: 2013-09-05
Request revised date: 2014-03-15
Online published: 2014-08-10
Copyright
This paper selected the R&D investment as primary abatement instrument, and constructed an optimal economic growth model with the constraint of carbon intensity reduction target. The mechanism behind the carbon intensity reduction here is that R&D activity will increase the knowledge stock and further improve the efficiency of energy use. Besides, the efficiency gap with developed countries will enhance the improvement rate through spillover effect. Given the linear relationship between energy intensity and carbon intensity of GDP, the improvement of energy efficiency means the decrease of energy intensity, which can easily conduct its relationship with carbon intensity. Furthermore, based on this model, it studied the optimal R&D investment and balanced economic growth path that satisfies both targets of social welfare maximization and carbon intensity reduction proposed by China in 2009, which is to reduce the carbon intensity in 2020 by 40%-45% compared with 2005. The simulation results indicated that the social welfare can benefit from increasing the consumption-output ratio from the 2007 level -49% to the optimal level -55%, and decelerating the R&D investment enlargement. However, in order to achieve the abatement target of 40% carbon intensity reduction it is required to raise the R&D intensity of GDP to 2.85% rapidly after 2014 and keep it at 3% thereafter. Perceivably, the optimal choice for the social planner is to postpone the start point to take concrete measures to reduce the carbon intensity before it is too late. Accordingly, the economic growth will attenuate due to the energy input decline and the resource invested on R&D, the balanced economic growth rate would drop sharply after 2014 with the annual average growth rate of 6% and 9.4% respectively in the optimal and baseline scenarios, whilst the path of carbon intensity indicates it would decline smoothly before 2013, and then after 2014 it would drop significantly but with the decline rate gradually slowing down, which is in accordance with the path of R&D intensity. Meanwhile, due to the combined effects of carbon intensity and economic growth trajectories, the energy consumption and carbon emission would keep increasing by and large, with a temporary decrease after an unobvious peak showing up in 2014. By the end of 2020, the energy and carbon emissions will reach 4176 Mtoe and 3478 MtC under the baseline scenario.
ZHU Yongbin , WANG Zheng . Optimal R&D investment path for China to fulfill its emission intensity target and the corresponding economic growth path[J]. GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 2014 , 33(8) : 1406 -1416 . DOI: 10.11821/dlyj201408002
看作是一种特殊的“产品”,其生产过程就是提高能源效率、降低能源强度的过程。 B可以看作“能效产品”的生产率;CP(t)表示t期的知识存量水平;IRD(t)为t期的研发活动强度; G(t)为t期与能效较高国家之间的技术差距;ϑ,
,
分别表示上述3个“生产要素”的能源效率弹性。
为能效较高国家的能源强度。从世界范围来看,除经济极不发达国家之外,日本在发达国家中的能源强度最低,且与中国的经济往来较为密切,技术溢出及学习模仿较为容易,因此选择日本的能源强度作为
。能源强度由于技术进步与研发投入而不断下降,其与高能效国家之间的技术差距也逐渐缩小,当技术差距消失时,本国即变成能效较高国家,因此(7)式表征的技术差距取值为1,从而其不再对能源强度的下降有任何贡献。
为碳排放强度;
为反映能源结构演变的综合排放系数,计算方法为:
;
;
;
;
为残差项。通过对上式进行回归分析,得到各参数的估计结果如表1所示。Tab. 1 Estimation of parameters in energy intensity dynamic equation表1 能源强度动态方程参数估计结果 |
| 参数值 | t值 | 显著性水平 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| b | 1.389 | -3.559 | 0.002 |
| 0.034 | -2.016 | 0.060 |
| 0.105 | -2.696 | 0.015 |
| -0.727 | 10.726 | 0.000 |
,其中
为当年新增的知识资本,即当年能效专利授权数;
和
;
为误差项。通过式(16)的回归分析,得到参数估计结果如表2所示。Tab. 2 Estimation of parameters in energy knowledge capital accumulation equation表2 能源知识资本积累方程参数估计结果 |
| 参数值 | t值 | 显著性水平 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.285 | 4.838 | 0.000 |
| 0.595 | 3.058 | 0.007 |
| 0.497 | 10.586 | 0.000 |
在模拟期间恒定。Fig. 1 The ratio of R&D investment to GDP during 1996-2007 and its trend for China图1 1996-2007年中国研发投资比重及其趋势线拟合 |
Fig. 2 The standardized optimal utility values in each consumption-output ratio scenario图2 不同消费产出比情景对应的最优效用值 注:模型所给的效用函数受到量纲以及参数取值的影响,其绝对值并无实际意义,因此根据最大最小值对结果进行0-1标准化。 |
Fig. 3 The trajectory of R&D-GDP ratio under the 40% emission intensity reduction objective图3 不同消费产出比情景下的研发投资路径(排放强度2020年相对2005年降低40%的目标下) |
Fig. 4 The GDP growth under the 40% emission intensity reduction objective in the optimal and baseline scenarios图4 最优与基准情景下的经济增长路径(排放强度2020年相对2005年降低40%的目标下) |
Fig. 5 The emission intensity under the 40% emission intensity reduction objective in the optimal and baseline scenarios图5 不同消费产出比情景下的排放强度路径(排放强度2020年相对2005年降低40%的目标下) |
Fig. 6 The energy consumption under the 40% emission intensity reduction objective in the optimal and baseline scenarios图6 最优与基准情景下的能源消费路径比较(排放强度2020年相对2005年降低40%的目标下) |
Fig. 7 The carbon emissions under the 40% emission intensity reduction objective in the optimal and baseline scenarios图7 最优与基准情景下的碳排放路径比较(排放强度2020年相对2005年降低40%的目标下) |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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