Network data envelopment analysis for carbon emission abatement allocation in a recycling production system

Appropriate measurement of emission allowances is of great significance for sustainable energy management. This work considers the carbon emission abatement (CEA) allocation in a recycling production system with cyclical factors. A centralized CEA allocation model pursuing the maximization of total outputs among decision making units is proposed under the framework of network data envelopment analysis (DEA). To increase the advisability of the proposed allocation model, a compensation policy is employed to achieve a win-win situation. A real-world application to the CEA allocation among European Union (EU) countries is investigated. The main results are: (a) more than half of the EU countries are allowed to increase their carbon emissions to achieve the maximal total GDP level; (b) more than two-third of EU countries need to buy \(CO_2\) $C{O}_2$ emissions to compensate for the increment in the carbon emissions from those with positive CEA contributions. Compared with conventional DEA-based allocation models, the proposed model considers the environmental treatment process with cyclical factors, which promotes the sustainable development while achieving energy allocation and emission reduction.