Impacts of interprovincial migration on the household energy footprints in China

Our study investigates the impact of interprovincial population migration on household energy footprints (HEFs) in China. We examine the influence of migration on HEFs in 2010 and 2015 and use structural decomposition analysis to evaluate the impact of migration structure changes during this period. Additionally, we develop a counterfactual scenario to explore the impact of migration on spatial HEFs inequality. We also consider the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on migration-induced HEFs by conducting a comparative analysis between a historical scenario and a counterfactual scenario. Our findings show that interprovincial migration resulted in an 8.34% and 6.38% increase in HEFs in 2010 and 2015, respectively, with the main impact occurring in developed coastal regions due to massive in-migration from neighboring provinces. In 2010, increased HEFs were mainly due to consumption of housing and services, while in 2015, consumption of household facilities and transport became major contributors. Moreover, migration structure changes contributed to a 0.3% increase in HEFs during 2010–2015, while migration led to a 6.0% and 7.5% increase in spatial HEFs inequality in 2010 and 2015, respectively. Finally, our analysis shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the impact of migration on HEFs by 0.09%.