People-centered energy transition

Advancing energy transition and human health well-being in tandem is key to implementing the people-centered green transition and reaching the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study quantitatively measures the synergy between household clean energy consumption (HCEC) and residents’ health (RH) in China provinces from 2012 to 2022, reveals the dynamic evolution and driving mechanism of the synergistic effect between HCEC and RH, and proposes differentiated driving strategies for the different synergy-type zones. Our findings are as follows: (1) The synergy between HCEC and RH increased from 0.400 to 0.673 in 2012–2022, and upgrading to the stage of a transitional upswing. (2) The HCEC–RH synergy exhibited a decreasing trend from southeast to northwest, with high-value regions concentrated in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei cluster and the eastern coastal areas. (3) Major factors influencing the spatial patterns of synergy included per capita disposable income, urbanization, and technological innovation. (4) For energy transition zones, factors related to the socio-economic (SE) condition dimension constitute the only direct driving force for improving the HCEC–RH synergy. Population-related (PQM) factors mainly affect HCEC–RH synergy through the PQM → SE → HCEC–RH pathway (indirect effect = 0.671). For synergistic optimization zone, both SE (direct effect = 0.78) and government support (direct effect = 0.40) exert significant positive direct effects on HCEC–RH synergy. Based on these insights, we propose a zoning-based strategy to promote HCEC–RH synergy

China · Clean energy · Energy consumption · Per capita · Renewable energy · Sustainable development · Energy and Environment Impacts · Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis · Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies