Urban–rural income gap and economic sustainability: how does energy transition matters?

The study aim is to assess the urban–rural income gap nexus with economic sustainability with the mediating role of energy transition. Communities worldwide are accelerating the energy transition and promoting social justice to combat global warming and poverty. Our experiment examined how the multi-dimensional energy transition rate affects the urban–rural income gap in 30 Chinese regions. The article analyzes China's renewable energy performance and creates an index. We next evaluate how the energy transition affects the urban–rural income gap using panel data from all 30 Chinese provinces between 2009 and 2020. China is increasing its energy conversion, according to our research. This research found that energy conversion has been effective but uneven in addressing the urban–rural income divide. Clean to warm and PV-based poverty reduction, the initiative's positive impact on China's urban–rural income inequalities, and the positive and negative effects of transition methods and ecological factors are also measured. Our study on the urban–rural wealth gap in China illuminates global energy transitions.