提高能源效率可以降低相对贫困吗?——以能源贫困为例

Can Energy Efficiency Improvement Reduce Relative Poverty? The Example of Energy Poverty

在全面脱贫背景与共同富裕目标下,构建缓解相对贫困的长效机制具有重要的理论和现实意义。文章以能源贫困为例,基于组群分析方法,利用两轮中国居民能源消费调查(CRECS)数据构成合成面板数据,首先测度出中国居民的能源效率及能源贫困的现状,然后分析能源效率对能源贫困的影响和机制,并进一步评估提高能效促进能源减贫的潜力空间。研究发现:(1)中国居民能源使用效率总体偏低,居民的能源消费“质量”总体不高。(2)部分地区居民的能源贫困问题较为严重,区域差异较大,能源贫困不减反增,居民综合能源贫困指数由2012年的0.268上升到2014年的0.403。(3)能源贫困居民的能源效率较非能源贫困居民更低,提高能源效率可以有效降低能源贫困;且主要是通过减少基本用能需求发挥作用,同时技术进步越快对于能源贫困的改善效果越好。(4)平均来看,提高能源效率可以使能源贫困发生率减少13.81%,且各省份的能源贫困改善潜力存在明显的异质性。文章的研究为厘清中国能源贫困事实、改善能源贫困这一相对贫困问题提供了理论和经验证据,为建立相对贫困长效机制提供了有益的参考。

Under the background of comprehensive poverty alleviation and the goal of common prosperity,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to construct a long-term mechanism to alleviate relative poverty.As one of the relative poverty and new poverty types,energy poverty is a worldwide problem faced by the whole world and an important manifestation of the aggravation of social inequality,which has a significant impact on the welfare of residents.Therefore,based on the cohort analysis,this paper takes energy poverty as an example and uses the data of Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey(CRECS)to form composite panel data.First of all,based on the SFA model and the Quantile Regression model,this paper measures the Chinese residential energy efficiency and energy poverty and compares the relationship between them from different perspectives.Then,the impact and mechanism of energy efficiency on energy poverty are analyzed,and the potential space for improving energy efficiency to reduce energy poverty is further evaluated.The results show that:Firstly,the energy efficiency of Chinese residents is generally low.In 2012,the average energy efficiency of Chinese residents was 0.679.Although the average energy efficiency increased in2014,it was only 0.824,indicating that the“quality”of residential energy consumption is not high.Secondly,the energy poverty problem of residents in some regions is serious and the regional differences are large.Energy poverty does not decrease but increases,and the comprehensive energy poverty index of residents increased from 0.268 in 2012 to 0.403 in 2014.Thirdly,based on the perspective of different regions and different income levels,the energy efficiency of energy-poor residents is lower than that of non-energy-poor residents,and improving energy efficiency can effectively reduce energy poverty.Fourthly,improving energy efficiency can reduce energy poverty mainly by reducing basic energy demand,and the more households invest in technology,the better the improvement effect of energy poverty.Fifthly,on average,improving energy efficiency reduces the incidence of energy poverty by 13.81%,and there is significant heterogeneity among provinces in energy poverty mitigation potential.Under the goal of common prosperity,this paper has important reference value for clarifying the fact of energy poverty of Chinese residents.At the same time,this paper takes improving energy efficiency as the main method and provides important theoretical and empirical evidence for reducing energy poverty.In addition,from the perspective of relative poverty,energy poverty provides a useful reference for the formulation of long-term mechanisms to alleviate relative poverty.