COVID-19 impact on households’ energy poverty and clean energy transition in China

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound yet understudied impact on energy poverty and clean energy transition among households. Using at least 6000 and up to 12,000 household longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies from 2014 through 2022, this study implements multiple empirical strategies to assess these effects on urban and rural Chinese households. Our findings reveal that the pandemic disrupted the pre-existing trend of rising electricity usage and exacerbated energy inequality, as indicated by shifts in the Lorenz curves of household energy expenditure. In particular, the energy poverty of rural households increased more rapidly than that of their urban counterparts in the post-pandemic era. Moreover, the growth rates of energy poverty incidence, depth, and intensity decelerated following the outbreak, suggesting a partial regression of energy poverty alleviation interventions, particularly in western and certain central regions compared to the more developed eastern Chinese provinces. Finally, the pandemic shock further intensified household energy poverty, whereby structurally advantaged households demonstrated resilience, but marginalized households experienced deepened deprivation. These insights highlight the urgency of implementing affordable, equitable, and resilience-based clean energy policy interventions in and beyond China.