Does population aging aggravate energy poverty: An examination of clean cooking fuel choice in rural China

Population aging and energy poverty are two major challenges faced by the world today. However, the latent relationship between them has been somewhat understudied. Resilient and cleaner cooking fuel is one of the pillars to alleviate energy poverty, but its adoption may be threatened by population aging, especially in rural area. Based on the data from six waves of China Family Panel Studies, this paper finds that in rural area, population aging significantly reduces the probability for households to use clean cooking fuel, because population aging would significantly decrease the energy affordability of rural households by decreasing non-agricultural employment and income and increasing medical expenditure, which impel them to prioritize cheaper solid fuel and reduce the consumption of clean fuel. Specifically, each 1 % increase in aging rate will reduce the probability for rural households to use clean cooking fuels by about 5.6 ‰. Moreover, the adverse effect only exists for the households with annual per capita income lower than 9,460 yuan, and is more pronounced in south China, ethnic minority areas, areas with ‘Coal to Gas/Electricity’ policy, and areas with lower clean energy reliability and accessibility. Social security enrolment, including endowment insurance and medical insurance, is found to alleviate the negative impact. The findings highlight the significant role of population aging in clean energy transition in rural China and the necessity of policy intervention to relieve the financial burden of aging families.