sustainability Article Provincial Carbon Emissions Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in China Shi Wang 1,2, Hua Wang 3,*, Li Zhang 4,* and Jun Dang 1,5 1 School of Economics and Finance, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an 710128, China;
[email protected] (S.W.);
[email protected] (J.D.) 2 “One Belt One Road” Economic and Trade Cooperation Innovation Team, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an 710128, China 3 School of Foreign Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China 4 School of Journalism and New Media, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China 5 “One Belt One Road” Cross-Border Electronic Commerce Research Institute, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an 710128, China * Correspondence:
[email protected] (H.W.);
[email protected] (L.Z.) Received: 2 April 2019; Accepted: 18 April 2019; Published: 19 April 2019 Abstract: We calculated provincial carbon emissions efficiency and related influencing factors in China with the purpose of providing a reference for other developing countries to develop a green economy. Using panel data covering the period from 2004–2016 from 30 provinces in China, we calculated the carbon emission performance (CEP) and the technology gap ratio of carbon emission (TGR) with the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and the meta-frontier model separately to analyze provincial carbon emissions efficiency in China. No matter which indicator was employed, we found that distinct differences exist in the eastern, the central, and the western regions of China, and the eastern region has the highest carbon emission performance, followed by the central and the western regions.