The allocation mechanism of carbon abatement quotas is a vital issue in the carbon emission abatement (CEA) for the environment and sustainability. The conventional CEA allocation focuses on the imposition of carbon quotas but hardly considers the techniques or mechanisms of abatement. The neglect of the abatement mechanisms may cause inapplicability and unavailability in the practical implementation of CEA allocation. To fill this gap, this paper firstly recognizes and distinguishes two kinds of non-separable relationships among energy inputs, capital investments, and carbon emission. Thereafter, three carbon abatement mechanisms are formed and defined. Then, three scenarios of carbon abatement, named managerial, technical, and hybrid scenarios, are constructed based on the carbon abatement mechanism, in which the carbon emission is, respectively, abated by reducing energy inputs and increasing capital investment and the hybrid measure of energy decrease and capital investment increase. With the developed carbon abatement mechanisms, a carbon abatement allocation application of the regional highway transportation systems in China is illustrated. It finds that the carbon abatement allocations based on the proposed carbon abatement mechanisms help to narrow the regional highway transportation system gaps in China, and the outputs perform the best under the managerial scenario. The Eastern bears more carbon abatement burdens than the Central and West under both managerial and technical scenarios. The Central and West can improve their outputs and bear more carbon abatement burden under hybrid scenarios. The central authority can choose the CEA technique and allocation scheme in line with its preference and observation.
Keywords: CEA allocation; CEA mechanism; Data envelopment analysis; Non-separation.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.