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A study on evaluation and influencing factors of carbon emission performance in China’s new energy vehicle enterprises

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Abstract

Vehicle industry has made great contribution to human progress. However, in the process of vehicle operation, a large number of carbon compounds are emitted, which brings serious environmental problems. As one of the important means of vehicle carbon emission governance, the development of new energy vehicles (NEVs) has attracted much attention. The behavior and performance of NEV enterprises are highly concerned. Using Chinese 23 NEV vehicle enterprises’ data from 2011 to 2018, this paper evaluates the carbon emission performance with the super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SE-SBM) model based on undesirable output and then constructs STIRPAT model to analyze the influencing factors of carbon emission performance. The results indicate that, firstly, the carbon emission performance of China’s NEV enterprises is increasing year by year. Secondly, the carbon emission performance of different NEV enterprise is distinct in the same year, and the carbon emission performance of the same NEV enterprise is distinct in different year. Thirdly, technological innovation, government support, and free cash flow have significant positive impact on the carbon emission performance of NEV enterprises, while debt constraint, energy intensity, and enterprise size have a significant negative impact on the carbon emission performance of NEV enterprises.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences of China for providing funding. This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China.

Funding

This work has received funding from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No: 3082020NP2020202) and the general project of national social science foundation of China: “Research on mechanism and supportive polices of environmental pollution cooperative governance in the process of regional integration development of the Yangtze River delta” (Approval number: 19BJL035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collage of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Min Zhao, Tao Sun & Qiang Feng

Authors
  1. Min Zhao
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  2. Tao Sun
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  3. Qiang Feng
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Contributions

This paper was completed by three authors. Dr. Min Zhao designed and wrote the first draft of the paper. She was the major contributor in writing the manuscript. Professor Tao Sun revised the manuscript. Dr. Qiang Feng participated in the research and carried out the research data investigation. The authors are ranked by contribution.

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Correspondence to Tao Sun.

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Zhao, M., Sun, T. & Feng, Q. A study on evaluation and influencing factors of carbon emission performance in China’s new energy vehicle enterprises. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 57334–57347 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14730-8

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