The impact of urbanization on the alleviation of energy poverty: Evidence from China

Urbanization is conducive to promoting the concentration of urban population and improving energy efficiency, which is an important factor affecting the sustainable development of China's society. Existing literature ignores the impact of urbanization on energy poverty, and the threshold effect between the two needs to be further explored. Using a panel dataset encompassing thirty Chinese provinces from 2004 to 2020, this study establishes both an urbanization index and an energy poverty index to delve into the impact of urbanization on energy poverty by employing the Fixed Effects Model. The Threshold Effect Model is used to explore the underlying mechanisms. The heterogeneous impact of urbanization on energy poverty is analyzed from five dimensions of urbanization. The research yields several key findings: (1) Promoting urbanization significantly contributes to mitigating energy poverty. (2) Economic and infrastructure-driven urbanization positively influence the alleviation of energy poverty. (3) When the level of technological innovation surpasses 14.716, heightened technological innovation amplifies the reduction of energy poverty through urbanization. In light of these results, there is a call for more targeted policies focusing on fostering technological innovation, economic and infrastructure-driven urbanization, to effectively combat energy poverty.