Relieving the water-energy nexus pressure through whole supply chain management: Evidence from the provincial-level analysis in China

Lin Yang; Yiming Li; Dong Wang; Zhuonan Wang; Yuantao Yang; Haodong Lv; Xian Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150809

Relieving the water-energy nexus pressure through whole supply chain management: Evidence from the provincial-level analysis in China

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 10;807(Pt 2):150809. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150809. Epub 2021 Oct 7.

Authors

Lin Yang¹, Yiming Li², Dong Wang³, Zhuonan Wang¹, Yuantao Yang⁴, Haodong Lv⁵, Xian Zhang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia University, Inner Mongolia 010021, China; New Energy Economy Strategic Research Think Tank Alliance of Inner Mongolia, Inner Mongolia 010021, China.
² School of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia University, Inner Mongolia 010021, China; New Energy Economy Strategic Research Think Tank Alliance of Inner Mongolia, Inner Mongolia 010021, China. Electronic address: liyiming_bit@foxmail.com.
³ Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia.
⁴ School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China.
⁵ School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China.
⁶ The Administrative Center for China's Agenda 21, Ministry of Science and Technology, Beijing 100038, China.

PMID: 34626641
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150809

Abstract

Water-energy nexus (WEN) is an international hot-spot issue, while more attentions have been paid to the direct nexus effect resulting from production activities. In this context, this study firstly used the multiregional input-output (MRIO) analysis to offer a full spectrum of water and energy usage throughout the whole supply chain in China, considering production-based perspective and betweenness-based and consumption-based perspectives. And then the principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to further target the critical WEN sectors in Chinese's 30 provinces. The results show that: (1) For most of these provinces, the direct WEN pressure caused by production activities can be found in several traditional resource-intensive sectors, especially in S22 (Production and supply of electric power and steam) and S14 (Smelting and pressing of metals). (2) The most critical transmission sectors with WEN pressure was S12 (Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products), followed by S14 in most of these province. S22 was the key transmission center in several provinces, and S7 (Manufacture of textile) in Fujian and Hubei and S10 (Papermaking and printing) in Zhejiang and Hainan should also be highly-concerned. (3) For all of these provinces, the indirect WEN pressure driven by final consumption appeared in S24 (Construction industry). In addition, S16 (Manufacture of general and special-purpose machinery) and S17 (Manufacture of Transport equipment) were the other two key consumption-based WEN sectors in some provinces. Overall, the WEN pressures in Jiangsu were relatively great in China, and S12 in Hubei was the only sector facing great WEN pressure from all three perspectives. Our results can draw implications for regional sustainable development in China.

Keywords: Betweenness-based perspective; Consumption-based perspective; Input-output analysis; Production-based perspective; Water-energy nexus (WEN).

MeSH terms

China
Commerce*
Steam
Sustainable Development
Water*

Substances

Steam
Water