ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND RURAL ENERGY POVERTY: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

Abstract

Sustainable development places a premium on recognizing people at risk of energy poverty, defined as the incapability to get a sufficient level of residential energy services. Therefore, this study analyses the relationship between economic development and rural energy poverty in Chinese regions. Using statistics from the China Families Panel Studies, it is observed that the Great Chinese Drought increased the risk of living in poverty. We conclude that there is wide variation in China’s regions regarding economic liberalization and the country’s energy deprivation. In provinces with different degrees of poverty, there is an inverse U-shaped association between economic growth and the country’s energy poverty. The country’s energy poverty reduced or even eliminated by advancing economic development to a specific degree. Many socioeconomic indicators at the home level are connected with energy poverty in various ways depending on the dimension, implying that individualized criteria are required to classify vulnerable families in each size and country-level considerations.