Abstract: Through inferring and constructing a factor decomposition model including the production and life sectors and the spatial effect, this paper makes use of the national and provincial panel data from 1980 to 2015 to conduct a quantitative analysis of the impact of technological level, industrial structures, household energy consumption intensity and changes of regional economical scales on China’s energy intensity. The findings show that besides the technological progress of the production sector, the decline in household energy consumption intensity is another driving factor for the decline in China’s energy intensity. The adjustments of the industrial structures have produced a negative effect since 1985. Seeing from the provincial level, there exist such problems as the retrogress of technological level in Xinjiang, the increased intensity of household energy consumption in Inner Mongolia and Hainan, the negative impacts due to the changes in industrial structures and economic scales in most provinces and cities, and so on. Therefore, in order to reduce China’s energy intensity, it is necessary not only to rely on technological advancement and industrial structure optimization, but also to improve the energy efficiency for household consumption and to promote the harmonious development of regional economy and energy utilization.

Key words: energy intensity; factor decomposition model; production and life; regional analysis