Global Change and Economic Development Programme The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Abstract. This paper looks into the overall energy pattern in rural China and the possible reasons behind based on an assessment of available data sources. Commercial energy consumption by rural residents is disproportionately lower than that by their urban counterparts. Moreover, biological matters are the dominant source of household fuels in rural areas. Variations in energy consumption are closely related to differences in income, access to energy sources, structures of local economy and geographic/climatic conditions. Information on non-commercial energy consumption is incomplete and additional sample survey is required to gather details of rural energy consumption for specification and verification