Effects of rural–urban development transformation on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions: A regional analysis in China

Abstract

a b s t r a c tSince the 1980s, China has been undergoing a period of rural-urban transformation. The rapid ruralurban development transformation (RUDT) in China has caused an excessive consumption of resources and environmental deterioration. Based on balanced provincial panel data in China gathered from 1990 to 2012, this study used an improved STIRPAT model to investigate the effects of RUDT on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions on the regional and national levels. The empirical results showed that the impact of RUDT on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in China varied greatly across regions. The demographic transformation (measured by urbanization level) increased energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in China and its eastern and central regions. The impact of employment structural transformation on energy consumption and carbon emissions across China generally was positive and significant but differed considerably across regions. The industrial structural transformation was positively correlated with and had a significant impact on energy consumption and emissions in the eastern and central regions, and that effect declined continuously from the eastern region to the central and western regions. Furthermore, the positive effect of land use transition on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in the western region was greater than that in the eastern and central regions. These findings can provide policymakers with a sound scientific basis for energy saving and emission reduction decisions.

Factors Influencing the Spatial Difference in Household Energy Consumption in China

“…The negative elasticities indicate that a 1% increase in urbanization level would decrease household energy use per capita by 0.54% (it is a mean value of seven elasticities of lnURB that are statistically significant). Our results are different with some previous studies that show urbanization increases energy consumption [57,71,72], and are supported by other studies [37,40,50,68]. The reason could be that urbanization encourages fuels switching from inefficient traditional fuels to modern fuels, which are more efficient, leading to energy saving [38,56].…”

“…Groh et al (2015) [49] 231 samples in rural Bangladesh (2), (4) (3) 2014 Energy access measurement is highly sensitive to changes in parameter values. Zhou et al (2015) [50] China (1), (2), (3), (8), (9) (1), (3) 1990-2012…”

“…Coal accounts for almost 50% of total amount of commercial energy source consumed by them in 2013 ( Figure 5), and they utilize some biomass fuels [48,72]. Second, if the In fact, the spatial heterogeneity between rural and urban households has more significant impact on the structure, pattern and efficiency of HEC than on the quantity of it [45,50,81,82]. First, the relatively perfect energy infrastructure, including central heating system, natural gas network system, power grids and filling stations, is build up in urban China.…”

Research on China’s rural household energy consumption – Household investigation of typical counties in 8 economic zones

“…Rural household energy consumption mainly refers to energies used for daily life of rural household, including illumination, cooking, heating, hot water and household appliances [12][13][14]. In rural areas of China, a developing countries, basic energy demands for daily life are satisfied by biomass energies (straw and fuel wood) [15][16][17][18]. Domestic researches on energy problems in rural areas began from the 20th century and have achieved abundant fruits [19][20][21].…”

Regional Disparities in Emissions of Rural Household Energy Consumption: A Case Study of Northwest China

“…Of course, it should be recognized that the contribution of rural households to the overall primary energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounts for a small percent of the total. For example, the CO 2 emissions of China varied from about 1000 million tons in 2001 to more than 2000 million tons in 2008 [8], the amount and growth of which were much larger than those of rural household energy consumption during the same period, but this contribution still plays an important role in the effects on the environment [9]. As for the influence factors of rural emission characteristics, empirical analysis or some specific explanatory variables and an econometric model are often presented according to different purposes and needs.…”