A path towards China's energy justice: Is government intervention absolutely necessary?

With the accelerated pace of the global energy transition, energy justice has become a focus of international attention. However, the greatest challenge to achieving energy justice may be the absence of comprehension of energy governance in other countries. To address this gap in the literature, this paper initially uses the improved entropy method to measure and analyze the level of energy justice in 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2017. Then, using panel OLS, the mediating effect model, and the Spatial Durbin Model, the paper examines the impact and mechanism of government intervention on energy justice in China. The findings indicate that: (1) Government intervention has a significant positive impact on energy justice. The result remains robust following the application of IV-2SLS, System GMM, and placebo tests to address endogeneity. (2) The mechanism analysis indicates that the government can indirectly promote energy justice by adjusting credit allocation. (3) Due to the inter-provincial competition effect, demonstration effect, and the externalities of energy itself, the increase in the degree of local government intervention will have a positive impact on energy justice in spatially adjacent regions. (4) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of government intervention on energy justice is more pronounced in northern regions due to differences in resource endowments and economic structures; the contribution of government intervention to energy justice is mainly reflected in improving energy accessibility. Finally, the article suggests that the government should create a comprehensive energy governance system, focus on credit allocation, and establish a regional coordination mechanism for energy governance to promote the ultimate realization of energy justice.