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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (1): 164-175.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.109

• Regional Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Vulnerability and influencing factors of clean energy use of rural households in ecologically fragile areas of northwest China

LI Lingyan1,2(), WANG Mengmeng1,2(), XIA Haoming1,2, DUAN Mimi1,2   

  1. 1 School of Management, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
    2 Key Research Base for Co-construction and Sharing of Shaanxi Human Settlements and Better Life in the New Era, Xi’an 710055, Shaanxi, China
  • Received:2025-03-02 Revised:2025-06-21 Online:2026-01-25 Published:2026-01-18
  • Contact: WANG Mengmeng E-mail:lilingyan@xauat.edu.cn;lwangmengmeng@xauat.edu.cn

Abstract:

Accelerating the transition from traditional solid-fuel energy to clean energy is an inevitable choice for rural areas in ecologically fragile regions to cope with climate change, strengthen environmental governance, and promote interregional sustainable development. However, under passive participation in clean energy reform policies, rural households in ecologically fragile areas of northwest China, which generally have relatively low economic capacity, often exhibit vulnerability phenomena, whereby modern clean energy equipment is “modified but not used” “basically not used” or “used at a low level”. To address this issue, we adopted a reverse energy-transition perspective and conducted field research in 13 counties (districts), covering 2002 rural households across 180 villages in Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai regions of China, and established an “exposure-sensitivity-adaptability” model to comprehensively assess the vulnerability of rural households to clean energy use. In addition, a multiple Logit model was used to analyze the influencing factors of vulnerability across three levels: economy, society, and household. The results show that (1) The proportions of rural households in the ecologically fragile areas of northwest China with low, medium, and high vulnerability to clean energy use are 26.12%, 46.55%, and 27.33%, respectively, and there is significant spatial heterogeneity in vulnerability. (2) Factors such as cultivated land area, energy subsidy policies, social networks, age, livelihood type, and household size significantly influence vulnerability. (3) The effects of influencing factors vary across different ecologically fragile regions. Therefore, based on the vulnerability characteristics of clean energy use among rural households in different ecologically fragile areas, the government should implement differentiated, region-specific energy subsidy policies and promotion strategiesaccording to local conditions to consolidate the achievements of clean energy reform policies.

Key words: rural households, sustained use of clean energy, vulnerability, “exposure-sensitivity-adaptability” model, ecologically fragile areas, northwest China