%A Sai LIANG, Tianzhu ZHANG, Xiaoping JIA %T Clustering economic sectors in China on a life cycle basis to achieve environmental sustainability %0 Journal Article %D 2013 %J Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. %J Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering %@ 2095-2201 %R 10.1007/s11783-012-0402-2 %P 97-108 %V 7 %N 1 %U {https://journal.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-012-0402-2 %8 2013-02-01 %X
To improve material efficiency, industrial structure optimization becomes a focal point in Chinese industrial and environmental policies. It is crucial to cluster economic sectors and determine their priority for industrial and environmental policy implementation. Integrating a set of criteria, a hybrid input-output model and the hierarchical cluster analysis, this study clusters China’s economic sectors and determines their priority on a life cycle basis. China’s economic sectors are clustered into three clusters. Industrial structure changes (industrial policy) should encourage the development of sectors in cluster 1 and limit the development of sectors in cluster 2. Technology development and materials recycling (two environmental policies) should mainly focus on sectors in clusters 1 and 2. Future industrial policies in China should limit the development of two sectors named