*Article* **Research on Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Management Evaluation of Listed Companies in Energy Industry Based on Portfolio Weight Cloud Model**

**Shanshan Li 1,2,†, Yujie Wang 3,\*,†, Yuannan Zheng 1, Jichao Geng <sup>2</sup> and Junqi Zhu <sup>2</sup>**

<sup>1</sup> Joint National-Local Engineering Research Centre for Safe and Precise Coal Mining, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China; 2020029@aust.edu.cn (S.L.); yuannanzheng@163.com (Y.Z.)

<sup>2</sup> School of Economics and Management, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan 232001, China; gjcjsj@aust.edu.cn (J.G.); 2010005@aust.edu.cn (J.Z.)


**Abstract:** Under the background of the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" strategy, energy saving and environmental protection (ESEP) management has become one of the most important projects of enterprises. In order to evaluate the ESEP management level of listed companies in the energy industry comprehensively, this study puts forward the evaluation framework of "governance framework-implementation process-governance effectiveness" for ESEP management level. Based on the comprehensive collection and collating of related information reports (e.g., sustainable development reports) of listed energy companies from 2009 to 2018, the ESEP information was extracted, and the portfolio weight cloud model was used to evaluate the ESEP management status of listed energy companies in China. It is of great theoretical innovation and practical significance to promote the evolution of the economy from "green development" to "dark green development". The results show that: (1) the number of SHEE information released by listed companies in the energy industry shows a steady increasing trend, but the release rate is low, and there are differentiation characteristics in different industries. (2) The ESEP management level of most listed companies in the energy industry is still at the low level, and only 17.19% (S = 65) of the sample companies are at the level of "IV level-acceptable" and "V level-claimable". (3) In terms of governance framework-implementation process-governance effectiveness, B1-governance framework (*Ex* = 3.4451) and B2-implementation process (*Ex* = 2.9480) are relatively high, but B3-governance effectiveness (*Ex* = 2.0852) and B4-public welfare (*Ex* = 2.0556) are relatively low. The expectation of most ESEP evaluation indexes fluctuates between "III level-transition level" and "II Level-improvement level". Finally, some suggestions are put forward to improve ESEP management levels.

**Keywords:** listed companies in the energy industry; ESEP management evaluation; analytic hierarchy process; entropy weight; cloud model
