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Rural Household Energy Use and Its Determinants in China: How Important Are Influences of Payment for Ecosystem Services vs. Other Factors?

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  • Song, Conghe
  • Bilsborrow, Richard
  • Jagger, Pamela
  • Zhang, Qi
  • Chen, Xiaodong
  • Huang, Qingfeng

Abstract

Fuelwood is an essential environmental good for livelihood in rural China. Heavy reliance on fuelwood is associated with numerous negative externalities. Due to decades of rapid economic growth in China, we hypothesize that the increase in rural household income would reduce reliance on fuelwood. Using data from a survey of 481 households conducted in 2014, we examined the effects of two payments for ecosystem services programs, the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP) and the Ecological Welfare Forest Program (EWFP), on energy use, along with other factors. We found that the CCFP did not significantly affect fuel choice nor the quantity of fuelwood used, but households with more forestland in EWFP were less likely to adopt modern fuels and likely to use more fuelwood. Household per capita annual income was the main factor promoting adoption of modern fuels, while household size was the most important factor determining the quantity of fuelwood used per capita. Overall, the gradually increasing adoption of modern fuels has thus far not resulted in any significant abandonment of fuelwood. Fuelwood remains the dominant fuel across all income groups, suggesting that households in the study area are in the early stages of the energy transition.

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  • Song, Conghe & Bilsborrow, Richard & Jagger, Pamela & Zhang, Qi & Chen, Xiaodong & Huang, Qingfeng, 2018. "Rural Household Energy Use and Its Determinants in China: How Important Are Influences of Payment for Ecosystem Services vs. Other Factors?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 148-159.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:145:y:2018:i:c:p:148-159
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.08.028
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    Cited by:

    1. Okorie, David Iheke & Lin, Boqiang, 2022. "Association of energy poverty and catastrophic health expenditure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    2. Xu, Chang & Lin, Fanli & Li, Chaozhu & Cheng, Baodong, 2022. "Effects of designating non-public forests for ecological purposes on farmer's forestland investment: A quasi-experiment in southern China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Addai, Bismark & Tang, Wenjin & Twumasi, Martinson Ankrah & Asante, Dennis & Agyeman, Annette Serwaa, 2022. "Access to financial services and lighting energy consumption: Empirical evidence from rural Ghana," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    4. Ma, Wanglin & Zhou, Xiaoshi & Renwick, Alan, 2019. "Impact of off-farm income on household energy expenditures in China: Implications for rural energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 248-258.
    5. Shuxin Mao & Sha Qiu & Tao Li & Mingfang Tang & Hongbing Deng & Hua Zheng, 2020. "Using Characteristic Energy to Study Rural Ethnic Minorities’ Household Energy Consumption and Its Impact Factors in Chongqing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-14, August.
    6. Zhang, Qi & Bilsborrow, Richard E. & Song, Conghe & Tao, Shiqi & Huang, Qingfeng, 2019. "Rural household income distribution and inequality in China: Effects of payments for ecosystem services policies and other factors," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 114-127.
    7. Wang, Ying & Bilsborrow, Richard E. & Zhang, Qi & Li, Jiangfeng & Song, Conghe, 2019. "Effects of payment for ecosystem services and agricultural subsidy programs on rural household land use decisions in China: Synergy or trade-off?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 785-801.
    8. Dongzagla, Alfred & Adams, Abdul-Moomin, 2022. "Determinants of urban household choice of cooking fuel in Ghana: Do socioeconomic and demographic factors matter?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    9. Zhu, Huanyu & Ma, Wanglin & Vatsa, Puneet & Zheng, Hongyun, 2023. "Clean energy use and subjective and objective health outcomes in rural China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    10. Yost, Alexandra & An, Li & Bilsborrow, Richard & Shi, Lei & Chen, Xiaodong & Yang, Shuang & Zhang, Weiyong, 2020. "Mechanisms behind concurrent payments for ecosystem services in a Chinese nature reserve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    11. Perevochtchikova, Maria & Castro-Díaz, Ricardo & Langle-Flores, Alfonso & Von Thaden Ugalde, Juan José, 2021. "A systematic review of scientific publications on the effects of payments for ecosystem services in Latin America, 2000–2020," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    12. Dingqiang Sun & Xinyue Yang & Huanguang Qiu, 2022. "Off-farm work and rural residential energy transition: a farm-household model and empirical evidence from China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(4), pages 816-831, August.
    13. Yang, Aoxi & Wang, Yahui, 2023. "Transition of household cooking energy in China since the 1980s," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    14. Han, Jiashi & Hou, Xiaochao & Zhang, Lei, 2022. "Policy implications of China's rural household coal governance from the perspective of the spillover effect," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    15. Sun, Mingxing & Xu, Xiangbo & Wang, Le & Li, Chang & Zhang, Linxiu, 2021. "Stable energy, energy inequality, and climate change vulnerability in Pan-Third Pole regions: Empirical analysis in cross-national rural areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    16. Zinda, John Aloysius & Zhang, Zhiming, 2019. "Explaining heterogeneous afforestation outcomes: How community officials and households mediate tree cover change in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 385-398.
    17. Emodi, Nnaemeka Vincent & Haruna, Emmanuel Umoru & Abdu, Nizam & Aldana Morataya, Sergio David & Dioha, Michael O. & Abraham-Dukuma, Magnus C., 2022. "Urban and rural household energy transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does spatial heterogeneity reveal the direction of the transition?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    18. Junran Dong & Desheng Wu, 2020. "An Evaluation of the Impact of Ecological Compensation on the Cross-Section Efficiency Using SFA and DEA: A Case Study of Xin’an River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-18, September.
    19. Alison Pye & Sara Ronzi & Bertrand Hugo Mbatchou Ngahane & Elisa Puzzolo & Atongno Humphrey Ashu & Daniel Pope, 2020. "Drivers of the Adoption and Exclusive Use of Clean Fuel for Cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa: Learnings and Policy Considerations from Cameroon," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-24, August.
    20. Han, Hongyun & Wu, Shu & Zhang, Zhijian, 2018. "Factors underlying rural household energy transition: A case study of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 234-244.
    21. Wang, Ying & Zhang, Qi & Bilsborrow, Richard & Tao, Shiqi & Chen, Xiaodong & Sullivan-Wiley, Kira & Huang, Qingfeng & Li, Jiangfeng & Song, Conghe, 2020. "Effects of payments for ecosystem services programs in China on rural household labor allocation and land use: Identifying complex pathways," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    22. Zhang, Qi & Wang, Ying & Tao, Shiqi & Bilsborrow, Richard E. & Qiu, Tong & Liu, Chong & Sannigrahi, Srikanta & Li, Qirui & Song, Conghe, 2020. "Divergent socioeconomic-ecological outcomes of China’s conversion of cropland to forest program in the subtropical mountainous area and the semi-arid Loess Plateau," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    23. Wang, Zihan & Huang, Fubin & Liu, Jing & Shuai, Jing & Shuai, Chuanmin, 2020. "Does solar PV bring a sustainable future to the poor? -- an empirical study of anti-poverty policy effects on environmental sustainability in rural China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

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