Examining energy inequality under the rapid residential energy transition in China through household surveys

Since 2013, China has initiated a rapid energy transition that replaces traditional solid fuels with modern clean energy. Despite the tremendous success of the energy transition, its impacts on household energy costs and associated energy inequality remain largely unexplored. Here we use data from a large nationwide household survey to investigate these trends. We find that about two-fifths (43.0%) of surveyed households switched from traditional solid fuels to clean energy during 2013-2017. However, 56.1% to similar to 61.0% of them were from extremely poor or poor households, causing deep concern for increasing household energy burden. Accordingly, the share of surveyed households in energy poverty increased from 30.1% to 34.2%. Despite the declining inequality in energy cost, a growing inequality in energy burden was revealed during 2013-2017. Our results demonstrate that the energy burden on rural households increased due to the dramatic rise in the cost of clean energy, while urban households tend to spend a lower and decreased proportion of their income on energy.

Automated summary

Since 2013, China has made remarkable progress in transitioning from traditional solid fuels to clean energy. However, this transition has disproportionately affected poor households, leading to concerns about the increasing energy burden. Although there has been a decrease in energy cost inequality, there is a growing disparity in energy burden between rural and urban households.