Quantifying residential cooling poverty and its drivers in China (2001–2020): Insights from multiple restrictive behaviors of accessing air conditioning

Abstract

While the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat highlights the importance of residential cooling, its effectiveness is largely undermined by residential cooling poverty (RCP). However, the manifestations and drivers of RCP are not well understood. To accurately quantify RCP, we here identify three incremental restrictive behaviors of accessing air conditioning (AC) and integrate them to propose a heat tolerance (HT) index. Using >100,000 household data from the China Urban Household Survey, we first show the effectiveness of the HT index; the HT index identifies over 36 % more disadvantaged cities on average than using these three restrictive behaviors alone. Moreover, we examine the heterogeneity in the spatiotemporal distribution and determinants of RCP. Results show that despite the downward trend of RCP nationwide in two decades, inequality persists, particularly in southern cities. The Gini index of RCP is 50 % more pronounced in southern cities (0.18) than in northern cities (0.12) due to higher inequities of AC ownership in the South. The RCP is mainly driven by the polarization of economic status (e.g., household income) in the South, while more amplified by social factors (e.g., educational attainment) in the North. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of residential cooling poverty and inform more targeted public policy in response to ameliorate cooling restrictions nationwide.