Evaluation of the sustainable development efficiency of environment and energy in China

With the increasing global demand for sustainable development, China, being one of the world’s most populous countries, is confronted with increasingly prominent challenges in sustainable development of environment and energy, specifically in terms of environmental protection and energy transformation. To promote sustainable development in China’s environment and energy sector, this paper constructs an evaluation indicator system for sustainable development of environment and energy by integrating the relevant Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The data envelopment analysis slack-based measure model is used for static analysis of the sustainable development efficiency, and dynamic analysis is conducted using the Malmquist index, aiming to reveal regional differences and trends in the efficiency of sustainable development from 2016 to 2022. The results indicate that there is a significant disparity in the sustainable development efficiency of environment and energy among the 31 provinces in China. China has seen a slight overall improvement in the sustainable development of environment and energy, with a promotion of environment-friendly development patterns. Moreover, technological innovation proves to be a key element in achieving more efficient and environment-friendly development. In addition, the decomposition of technical efficiency change also makes the management level and factor allocation be attached importance.