Household energy consumption in rural China: Historical development, present pattern and policy implication

Abstract

Household energy consumption in rural areas is strongly related to living standards, poverty alleviation, air pollution and health, but lacks solid analysis due to limited data. This paper first presents a systematical overview of rural household energy consumption in China from 1985 to 2013. To quantify and illustrate the pattern of rural household energy consumption, we use a comprehensive household survey, the Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey (CRECS, 2013) to illustrate the energy consumption by seven types of energy and five types of end-use demand. Moreover, we compare the rural household energy consumption in terms of quantity, fuel mix and demand structure by North-South regions, East-Middle-West areas and various countries. We identify the biomass still dominate Chinese rural household energy supply while cooking and space heating are the most energy-intensive demand. The overall energy efficiency for a rural household is 33%, mainly attributed to the massive use of biomass. Policy implications are summarized and discussed.