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This study examines the role of energy security in poverty reduction in the 12 poorest Asian economies from 2000 to 2019. We postulated an energy security index using principal component analysis. We adopted the system generalized method of a moment technique to manage endogeneity and dynamism in the model. For robustness, we applied a panel-corrected standard error (PCSE). We found a negative relationship between energy security and poverty reduction, suggesting that energy security helps reduce poverty. We conclude that energy security promotes sustainable poverty alleviation and recommends feed-in tariffs, net metering, tax credits, and energy resource diversification away from fossil fuels.

To investigate the impact of natural disasters on energy poverty, this study employs a panel dataset of 113 countries covering the period 2000–2014. We also conduct an asymmetric analysis on the natural disaster–energy poverty nexus. In addition, we analyze the impact mechanism between natural disasters and energy poverty. The main findings indicate that natural disasters deteriorate the energy poverty status, and this impact is asymmetric. Furthermore, technological innovation can reduce the positive impact of natural disasters on energy poverty. Also, renewable energy infrastructure is an important pathway through which natural disasters affect energy poverty.

The impact of Asia’s infrastructure development and inclusive income growth on poverty alleviation from 2000 to 2020 is well-documented in this research by applying the generalized method of moments (GMM). With the use of economic and social indices, it has been established that infrastructure improvement significantly impacts reducing poverty levels. The findings demonstrate the important impact of energy poverty alleviation on income-inclusive growth. It is easier to survive poverty in rural areas with access to water infrastructure and health insurance. Infrastructure and poverty seem to have a bidirectional causal relationship in the long term. To put it another way, boosting infrastructure investment might be a key to promoting poverty reduction. At the same time, greater performance in the public sector may result in a more effective allocation of resources toward building large infrastructure. Thus, it is postulated that with increasing knowledge, infrastructural development in most developing nations, including South Asian countries, is insufficient; fresh and sustained infrastructure investments are crucial for poverty reduction. This research sheds light on the critical role that energy out-of-poverty plays in inclusive development and infrastructure development for all people, regardless of their income level.

Sustainable development places a premium on recognizing people at risk of energy poverty, defined as the incapability to get a sufficient level of residential energy services. Therefore, this study analyses the relationship between economic development and rural energy poverty in Chinese regions. Using statistics from the China Families Panel Studies, it is observed that the Great Chinese Drought increased the risk of living in poverty. We conclude that there is wide variation in China’s regions regarding economic liberalization and the country’s energy deprivation. In provinces with different degrees of poverty, there is an inverse U-shaped association between economic growth and the country’s energy poverty. The country’s energy poverty reduced or even eliminated by advancing economic development to a specific degree. Many socioeconomic indicators at the home level are connected with energy poverty in various ways depending on the dimension, implying that individualized criteria are required to classify vulnerable families in each size and country-level considerations.

Due to the growing concern regarding energy poverty and its relation to economic growth, the paper evaluates the causality between both fields in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper reviews all aggregated income levels thus developing aggregated series, from 1973 to 2012, in annual frequency. The well-established and generally accepted time domain Granger causality analysis is adopted. In addition, a new frequency domain causality test is performed enabling the identification and distinguishing of the causal relationship, while considering each specific frequency. Significant results are withdrawn from the time domain causality test indicating bi-directional causal links between economic growth and energy consumption, especially with regard to fossil fuel energy consumption. The comparisons between the frequency domain causality results, of different variables indicate not only a highly unidirectional causality relationship between energy consumption and economic growth, but also a tendency of enhanced significance for the emerging cycle length.