China plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 40-45% by 2020 and by 60-65% by 2030. This research project addresses this challenge by analyzing Chinese provincial carbon dioxide emission efficiencies and the energy consumption structure. The study applies the Slacks Based Measure (SBM) model to analyze the data from 30 regions in China from 2000 to 2011. The situation of provincial carbon dioxide emission efficiency, the characteristics of the energy consumption structure in each province, and the differences among these provinces are quantitatively analyzed. Based on the K-means cluster analysis, this research suggests that China be divided into five groups in the energy consumption structure: the inefficient and less reasonable group, the inefficient and more reasonable group, the efficient and less reasonable group, the efficient and more reasonable group, and the efficient and most reasonable group. The study offers recommendations for the government to develop policies to effectively and efficiently reduce carbon dioxide emission levels for each group. It also has profound implications for government administration in developing countries to guide the energy consumption and to control environmental pollution for the healthy development of the economy. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.