Does the cooking fuel transition lead to unexpected energy poverty? Evidence from the less-developed Tibetan region of China

Energy poverty triggered by the cooking fuel transition poses challenges to the quality of life of rural households. However, little attention has been given to this topic. To fill this gap, this study aims to employ an economic-based approach to explore the effects of the cooking fuel transition on energy poverty using survey data from 419 rural households. The results reveal that the cooking fuel transition deepens energy poverty in three dimensions: incidence, depth, and average gap. Specifically, for the transitions from firewood to electricity, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and a combination of electricity and LPG, the incidence of energy poverty increased by 26.66%, 32.14%, and 33.32%, respectively. The depth of energy poverty increased from 1.25% to 1.83%, 2.52%, and 1.96%, respectively. The average energy poverty gap increased from 309.48 CNY to 432.50 CNY, 559.68 CNY, and 439.07 CNY. The results also demonstrate that “firewood to electricity” was the most cost-effective transition path and that low-income households were consistently the core of cultivating energy poverty. Our findings are expected to prompt the full attention of policy-makers to transition-induced energy poverty and then shed light on formulating targeted policies to alleviate rural household energy poverty.