Supplementary file 1_Green transformation of pastoral livestock systems in China: development level, efficiency mismatch, and carbon decoupling.docx

Efficiency results qualify the composite-level ranking: Inner Mongolia has the highest scale efficiency but limited frontier years; Xinjiang reaches the PTE frontier most frequently but has the lowest scale efficiency; Qinghai has the highest mean TE; and Tibet has the highest mean PTE but lower scale efficiency. Coupling coordination improves most clearly in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang and also rises from lower initial levels in Qinghai and Tibet.

Estimated output-based CO₂e intensity declines by 17.6 to 43.2% across the four regions. Obstacle analysis shows that the policy-round variable influences baseline rankings; excluding it shifts the leading diagnostic obstacles toward production, income, and environmental indicators. Livestock-system sustainability is therefore better understood as a joint livelihood-efficiency-emissions problem than as a single composite-ranking exercise.</p>