CO ₂ emission reduction within Chinese iron & steel industry: Practices, determinants and performance

Due to increasing energy scarcity and pressures from climate change, Chinese iron & steel (IS) companies have struggled to implement practices to reduce their energy consumption and CO ₂ emissions. However, it is not clear whether these practices can improve the environmental or economic performance of these companies. The determinants that drive or hinder the implementation of these practices are also not known. Therefore, this paper describes an empirical analysis of a total of 85 questionnaires of various IS companies across China. A regression analysis was applied in this paper to verify the relationship among CO ₂ reduction practices, determinants and performance as reported by the IS companies. The results show that although some CO ₂ reduction practices can result in significant environmental performance, their impacts on the improvement of economic performance are less clear. The paper discusses some implications regarding strategies for prompting CO ₂ reduction practices that have been considered during the discussion about the determinants that impact on the practices.