Research on the evaluation of China’s regional energy security and influencing factors

ABSTRACT Significant increases in energy demand and a higher pressure on energy supply pose a great threat to energy security. This study evaluated the level of regional energy security in China and explored the influencing factors of energy security based on the spatial lag model. The results show that China’s overall and regional energy security is generally not high. Technological progress, ecological environment, and energy production can improve energy security, while energy consumption intensity, and population size negatively affect regional energy security. Moreover, the results indicate that the marginal effect of energy consumption intensity on energy security decreases as the technological level increases. Therefore, encouraging the development of high-tech industries, controlling the size of the population, stabilizing international energy supply, and strengthening foreign cooperation are of great significance to the improvement of energy security.