Sustainability, shale gas, and energy transition in China: Assessing barriers and prioritizing strategic measures

• Barriers affecting a sustainable shale gas revolution in China are investigated.
• Strategic measures for enhancing the sustainable shale gas revolution are proposed.
• Analytic Network Process is used to assess the relative importance of the barriers.
• Interpretative Structural Modeling is used to analyze these strategic measures.

Shale gas, as an emerging unconventional resource in China, has been regarded as a promising option for diversifying away from traditional fossil fuels and enhancing national security of energy supply. This study analyzed the barriers affecting the sustainable shale gas revolution in China and prioritized the feasible strategic measures by employing the methods of fuzzy Analytic Network Process and Interpretative Structural Modeling. The aim is to help the stakeholders and administrators to better comprehend the relative importance of the barriers and adopt suitable measures. The results demonstrated that the lack of governmental support and guidelines, lack of regulations and standards, and lack of core technologies are the most important barriers hindering the energy transition to shale gas in China. The refinement of subsidies, advanced research, and harmonized standards could in large overcome many of these barriers.