Potential policy coordination: Can energy intensity targets affect energy poverty?

China's central government began setting mandatory energy intensity targets for provincial governments in the first year of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. In addition to ensuring China's sustainable reduction of energy intensity, energy intensity targets may also have the policy coordination effect of alleviating energy poverty. Based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2020, this paper empirically studies the impact of energy intensity targets on energy poverty. Asymmetric analysis is also conducted in this paper, as well as an exploration of the potential mechanisms through which energy intensity targets affect energy poverty. The research conclusions are as follows: (1) Energy intensity targets have a significant policy coordination effect of alleviating energy poverty, even though that is not the intended policy purpose. (2) In regions with better energy infrastructure, industrial structure distortions can enlarge the impact of energy intensity targets on alleviating energy poverty. However, in disadvantaged areas, industrial structure distortions do not moderate the impact of energy intensity targets on energy poverty. (3) There is a heterogeneous relationship between energy intensity targets and energy poverty at different quantiles. The energy poverty alleviation effect of energy intensity targets is stronger in regions with more severe energy poverty. But in regions where energy poverty is not severe, energy intensity targets have no significant impact on energy poverty. (4) Energy poverty exhibits a clear spatial correlation. Energy intensity targets not only affect local energy poverty, but also affect energy poverty in adjacent areas, indicating that the impact of energy intensity targets on energy poverty has significant spatial correlation characteristics. We also make suggestions for policy coordination in the energy sector.