TY - JOUR
T1 - The unequal impacts of extremely high temperatures on households’ adaptive behaviors
T2 - Empirical evidence from fine-grained electricity consumption data
AU - Shi, Han
AU - Wang, Bo
AU - Qiu, Yueming Lucy
AU - Deng, Nana
AU - Xie, Baichen
AU - Zhang, Bin
AU - Ma, Shijun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2024/7
Y1 - 2024/7
N2 - Climate change is predicted to result in more frequent extreme weather conditions and large temperature shocks. Existing research has largely focused on exploring the response relationship between temperature and energy consumption, however, adaptability gaps among different income groups during extremely high temperatures remain unclear. This study examines the effect of temperature shocks on electricity consumption using high-frequency and fine-grained data from 68,540 Chinese households. The results indicate that the poverty-stricken households' electricity consumption is only 65.2% of the urban households’ as responsive to high temperatures. Additionally, the heatwaves and the tiered price induce the bigger adaptability gaps. For the occurrence of heatwave disasters on hot days, electricity consumption decreases by 0.95% for poverty-stricken households, while increasing by 0.52% for urban households. When the cost of electricity rises, the adaptability for poverty-stricken households is 1.87 and 2.89 times weaker than that of urban and rural households, respectively. Using different scenarios of projected future temperatures, we estimate that the average adaptability gaps will increase by 0.76–3.64% in the middle term and 1.53–5.07% in the long term among poverty-stricken households and other groups. These findings highlight the importance of adaptation strategies to climate change, particularly for poverty-stricken households.
AB - Climate change is predicted to result in more frequent extreme weather conditions and large temperature shocks. Existing research has largely focused on exploring the response relationship between temperature and energy consumption, however, adaptability gaps among different income groups during extremely high temperatures remain unclear. This study examines the effect of temperature shocks on electricity consumption using high-frequency and fine-grained data from 68,540 Chinese households. The results indicate that the poverty-stricken households' electricity consumption is only 65.2% of the urban households’ as responsive to high temperatures. Additionally, the heatwaves and the tiered price induce the bigger adaptability gaps. For the occurrence of heatwave disasters on hot days, electricity consumption decreases by 0.95% for poverty-stricken households, while increasing by 0.52% for urban households. When the cost of electricity rises, the adaptability for poverty-stricken households is 1.87 and 2.89 times weaker than that of urban and rural households, respectively. Using different scenarios of projected future temperatures, we estimate that the average adaptability gaps will increase by 0.76–3.64% in the middle term and 1.53–5.07% in the long term among poverty-stricken households and other groups. These findings highlight the importance of adaptation strategies to climate change, particularly for poverty-stricken households.
KW - Adaptive behaviors
KW - Electricity consumption
KW - High temperature
KW - Poverty-stricken households
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192965759&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114170
DO - 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114170
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85192965759
SN - 0301-4215
VL - 190
JO - Energy Policy
JF - Energy Policy
M1 - 114170
ER -