题目:巴西能源效率和能源替代:通往清洁高效的国家能源系统的道路(Brazilian energy efficiency and energy substitution: A road to cleaner national energy system)
作者:林伯强*,Isaac Ankraha, Sylvester Adasi Manu
期刊:清洁生产(Journal of Cleaner Production)
详细:162卷,2017年9月,1275-1284页
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.011
文献导读:
能源在巴西国民经济发展中发挥着十分关键的作用。实际上,近年来,巴西经济取得的巨大成功主要归功于对能源的开发利用和对能源基础设施的大力建设。尽管可再生能源在能源组合中占有较大的比重,但巴西的能源需求与能源消耗带来的温室气体排放正在持续增加。美国能源信息管理局(EIA)的统计显示,巴西石油消费产生的二氧化碳排放量从1980年的1.63亿吨增加到2013年的4.03亿吨。因此,巴西政府在认识到提高能源效率的必要性后,积极采取相关措施,以降低对石油的依赖和实现其减排目标。2011年巴西通过的国家能源效率行动计划是一项重大举措。 该计划指出,到2030年巴西电力消耗量下降10%,减少3000万吨的二氧化碳排放量。该计划的有效性如何?减少电力消耗就能减少二氧化碳排放吗?这些是巴西在实施国家能源效率计划时需要考虑的问题。本文认为,实现这一计划可能在很大程度上取决于各种生产要素和燃料类型之间存在的可替代性。
文章使用了巴西1980年至2013年的年度数据,运用超越对数生产函数考察了投入要素(资本、劳动力、石油和电力)对巴西经济的潜在影响。该研究还测算了这些投入要素间的替代弹性以及燃料要素间的替代弹性。此外,考虑到数据可能存在的多重共线性,作者还采用了岭回归分析方法进行参数估计。
研究结果表明,第一,资本和劳动力要素对巴西经济具有正向影响,而石油和电力则会对巴西经济产生负向影响。对于后者带来的负向影响,作者提供的一个解释是,巴西大型能源企业一直存在严重的腐败现象。第二,资本、劳动力、石油和电力都是可替代品,表明巴西能够保持经济增长前景,同时降低能源消耗带来的环境影响。第三,资本和能源之间存在潜在的替代关系。此外,相比劳动力与能源间的替代性,资本与能源之间的替代性更高。这可能意味着资本投资比劳动力投入投资更有吸引力。最后,文章还指出,各种投入要素之间的技术进步差异具有很强的趋同性。
Abstract:
Recognizing the need to increase energy efficiency across various sectors of the economy, the Brazilian government through the national energy efficiency plan (adopted in 2011) seeks to avoid 30 million tons of CO2 emissions through a reduction in electricity consumption of about 10% by 2030. Notwithstanding, we believe that a complete realization of such initiative will be dependent on the level of substitutability between different production factors and fuel types. Using the translog production function method, this paper, first provides insight on the economic impact of both factor and fuel inputs in Brazil. Most importantly, we examine the possibility of substitution among capital, labor, petroleum, and electricity. The ridge regression technique was used to estimate the parameters after our data depicted the existence of multicollinearity. Our results show that capital and labor are positively linked to output; however, petroleum and electricity contribute negatively to economic output in Brazil of which corruption is a plausible reason. Again, all variable inputs are substitutes with their relative technological progress depicting features of convergence. This implies that Brazil can achieve a cleaner energy system without much challenges due to the possibility of switching from greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting petroleum to a cleaner energy electricity. Our findings also highlight the importance of policies that advance merger of enterprises, and renewable energy use.
Keywords: Corruption; CO2 emissions; Energy substitution; Brazil