Societal Dimension of Energy Consumption – Exploring Environmental Inequality in China

Abstract

From the social-ecological nexus perspective, environmental inequality is embedded in its root of social problem arising from income inequality. “The urgent global challenges of sustainability and equity must be addressed together” (IPCC2011). This paper intends to explore the link between house income inequality and environmental vulnerability in Rural of China. In the process of rural to urban dominated economy transformation, social structures are changing, and ecosystems are facing stress. Given China's dynamic economic and environmental situation, we aim to provide an assessment in the inequality of energy use and environmental effects in two different systems of urban and rural region in China. The paper deals with three questions: 1. how has household expenditure linked with the energy use directly and indirectly; 2. how has China challenged by inequalities between rural and urban household on the residential energy consumption; 3. how high is the emission estimated in the rural residential energy use? The analysis results indicate obviously that almost half rural family still use no-commercial energy and thus coal is the main commercial energy sources; the per capital CO2 emissions of rural region is much higher than urban region, which is driven by low energy efficiency and less advanced public infrastructure. It address the equity issues that policy should focus on energy affordability and promoting a transition away from biomass to other modern energy sources in rural China. In the paper, the input-output table is employed for accounting the indirect residential energy use and emissions, which is associated with the eight sectors of household expenditure. The data sources are from various household serveries and energy statistics in the period of 1990 to 2016.