Measuring energy security for China: A multi-dimensional approach

Abstract

There have been very few studies that evaluate multiple dimensions of energy security in China. This study thus aims to extend the line of research on energy security for the case of China from 1980 to 2014. For this purpose, the 4-A quantitative evaluation framework from Yao and Chang (2014) was employed as the main stream of analysis. We then conducted an overall energy security index based on a total of sixteen indicators. The results indicate that: (i) the availability and applicability dimensions show a stable increasing trend over the entire investigation period; (ii) the acceptability dimension increased strongly over the period 1980s to 1995 before gradually increasing afterwards; (iii) the affordability dimension improved steadily from 1980 to 1992 and from 1999 to 2008, while showing a decline in other periods. Notably, China’s overall energy security improved during the period 1990-1995, but decreased sharply over the years 1994-2000. Furthermore, it fluctuated from 2000 to 2009 before exhibiting a rising trend in recent years. The findings of this study imply that actions need to be taken on various dimensions for China to improve its overall energy security.