Characteristics and influencing factors of energy consumption in Chinese rural households

In the 14th Five-Year Plan, China clearly proposed to achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutralization by 2060, which will be incorporated into the Ecological Civilization Construction. Therefore, it is particularly important to control the consumption of fossil energy in rural areas. Under this background, the paper is based on the filed survey data of rural households and uses the method of CLAD (the censored least absolute deviations) estimation of Tobit model to study the influencing factors and structural characteristics of rural households' energy consumption. The results show that the consumption of traditional energy with low-quality takes a main proportion of total energy consumption in rural households, which is unreasonable and needs transforming urgently. Also, there is heterogeneity among regions. Family characteristics, family wealth, and energy conservation initiative have an impact on total energy consumption and different types of energy. Especially, households with high frequency of energy conservation behavior and strong policy perception will reduce the consumption of high-polluting firewood and increase the use of coal and electricity.

Automated summary

This paper studies the influencing factors and structural characteristics of rural household energy consumption and finds that the consumption of traditional low-quality energy accounts for a large proportion of total energy consumption in rural households. There are also regional heterogeneities. Family characteristics, family wealth, and energy conservation awareness have an impact on energy consumption, and households with high frequency of energy conservation behavior and strong policy perception reduce firewood consumption and increase the use of coal and electricity.