CO2 emission reduction pathways of iron and steel industry in Shandong based on CO2 emission equity and efficiency

In the context of the “dual carbon” goal, the governance of CO2 emissions should comprehensively consider efficiency and equity. Shandong is a major province of the iron and steel industry, and the transformation of its high-CO2 emission development model is urgent. Based on the CO2 emission data of the iron and steel industry in 14 prefecture-level cities in Shandong from 2011 to 2020, this paper adopted the Super-SBM model and constructed a CO2 emission equity indicator to measure the CO2 emission efficiency and equity respectively. According to the “equity-efficiency” combination, the 14 cities were divided into four types of regions, and different corresponding CO2 emission reduction pathways were designed. The results demonstrated that: (1) The CO2 emission equity exhibited an upward trend, mainly due to the expansion of the iron and steel industry and the increase of employees. The CO2 emission efficiency fluctuated slightly and was ineffective due to the ineffective scale effect. (2) From the perspective of CO2 emission trading, the iron and steel industry in most cities was expected to purchase CO2 emission allowances, while that in Linyi and Rizhao was expected to sell them. (3) The CO2 emissions as a whole had the characteristics of “high equity and low efficiency”.