Regional differences in China's fossil energy consumption: an analysis for the period 1997-2013

Measuring regional differences in fossil energy consumption is the first step to the study of natural resource allocation and utilization. This paper employs annual and cumulative consumption Gini indexes as well as the deviation index to discuss regional differences in the per capita consumption of fossil energy and related products across 30 Chinese provinces from 1997 to 2013. The results show that Chinese inter-provincial Gini ratio of fossil energy consumption is below 0.3 in recent years, and change in per capita energy consumption is the key factor behind the decline in the overall Gini index. Unlike existing studies based only on annual flows of energy consumption, this paper also focuses on cumulative energy consumption. Moreover, decomposing annual and cumulative consumption Gini coefficients by type, group, and incremental variation is rarely seen in other studies. Based on the above positive analysis, the paper provides some policymaking suggestions.