Research On The Poverty Reduction Mechanism Of Photovoltaic Poverty Alleviation Project Based On The Perspective Of Sustainable Livelihood

Poverty elimination is one of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations,and it is also a very important economic and political task for China to enter the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.Since the trumpeting of the battle against poverty sounded in 2015,Chinese poverty alleviation work has been advancing rapidly and has achieved tremendous achievements.The photovoltaic poverty alleviation program is one of the top ten programs of China's targeted poverty alleviation,and is a new way to achieve the organic combination of new energy development and poverty alleviation goals.However,the large-scale application of solar PV in poverty alleviation is affected many factors.The rapid advancement and over-expansion of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program have resulted in several problems becoming prominent,including the unauthorized income distribution,poor quality of power generation systems,difficulties in rural grid connection,and the neglect of operational and maintenance in post-post construction.This has consequently led to serious public doubt into the poverty alleviation effect of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program.As far as China's photovoltaic poverty alleviation program is concerned,regardless of the political will of the government,its potential effect on poverty reduction for poor families is still largely unknown.In addition,in domestic and foreign researches on the use of solar photovoltaic technology to promote poverty reduction,there is little analysis of the poverty reduction role of photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects on poor farmers from the perspective of sustainable livelihoods.Therefore,it is imperative to explore the internal mechanism of poverty reduction in photovoltaic poverty alleviation program aimed at the sustainable livelihood of the poor.Under such circumstances,this study intends to solve the following key issues:(1)What is the internal mechanism of the photovoltaic poverty alleviation program to reduce poverty among the poor?(2)What are the main factors affecting poverty reduction of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program?(3)Are there significant differences in the poverty reduction paths of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program among different types of poor families?(4)What is the actual contribution of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program to the improvement of livelihood capital of poor families?(5)Can we get policy suggestions to promote sustainable poverty reduction of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program,so as to further accelerate the pace of poverty reduction in rural China.In order to solve the above problems,this paper started from the perspective of mutual verification of theoretical exploration and empirical testing,using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research.It obtained basic data on the implementation of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program by 1112 poor farmers in 9 poverty-stricken counties across our country through questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews,and explored the internal poverty reduction mechanism of China's photovoltaic poverty alleviation program.Specifically,this study has done the following work:(1)it reviewed the relevant literature to design the overall research program;(2)it defined the relevant concepts,sorted out the relevant theories and conducted a literature review;(3)it refined the measurement dimension of endogenous impetus,expanded the sustainable livelihood theory from the perspective of endogenous impetus,and built a conceptual model of the poverty reduction mechanism of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program around livelihood capital,endogenous impetus,livelihood strategy,and livelihood outcome;(4)by using structural equation model,importance-performance map analysis,mediation effect analysis,multi-group comparative analysis and other methods to verify the hypothesis of the poverty reduction role of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program,analyze the poverty reduction differences of this program in different types of poor families,and identify the poverty reduction factors of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program;(5)it analyzed the changes of livelihood capital of rural poor families before and after the implementation of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program and quantified the poverty reduction effects of this program through methods such as probability distribution comparison,mean comparison,independent sample test,and double difference regression model;and(6)it put forward policy recommendations to promote sustainable poverty reduction in China's photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects,and provide decision-making reference for relevant government departments and photovoltaic enterprises in my country.Based on the above theoretical research,empirical studies and strategy formulation,this study found that:(1)the photovoltaic poverty alleviation program has a significant positive impact on the improvement of the livelihood outcome of rural poor families;(2)the impact of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program on the livelihood outcome of rural families is partly realized through the intermediary variables of livelihood capital,endogenous impetus and livelihood strategy;(3)for non-agricultural families,high energy-saving habits families and high education level families,the impact of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program on livelihood outcome is relatively significant;while for non-agricultural families,low energy-saving habits families and low education level families,the impact of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program on livelihood capital is relatively significant;(4)for families with high awareness of photovoltaic power generation and photovoltaic poverty alleviation program,the impact of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program on livelihood capital,thought impetus and livelihood strategy is relatively significant;and the influence of PPAP on the livelihood outcome of highcognition families is partly realized through the thought impetus;and(5)the net effect of china's photovoltaic poverty alleviation program on the increase in the livelihood capital of rural families is 31.9%,and differences existed in the anti-poverty effect of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program across the three types of solar photovoltaic resource areas.According to all above research conclusions,this dissertation put forward following policy recommendations: vigorously develop photovoltaic poverty alleviation program according to local conditions;strengthen the cultivation of endogenous impetus for the poor;encourage poor families with relatively high overall quality to carry out home-based photovoltaic poverty alleviation program;intensify the publicity of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program to raise the awareness of poor families on photovoltaic poverty alleviation program;formulate a long-term mechanism for the healthy development of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program.The main contribution and innovations of this study are as follows:(1)Built a theoretical model of the poverty reduction mechanism of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program based on the perspective of sustainable livelihood.This paper overcame the limitations of single-dimensional measurement in the existing literature,and proposed for the first-time to define an individual's endogenous impetus from the two dimensions of thought impetus and behavior impetus;it broke through the limitations of the traditional sustainable livelihood theory in explaining the poverty problem caused by individual subjective factors,and expanded the classic sustainable livelihood analysis framework from the perspective of endogenous impetus;on this basis,it built a theoretical model of poverty reduction mechanism of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program.(2)Explored the mechanism of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program in improving the livelihoods of poor families.Existing research only involves the evaluation of poverty reduction efficiency and the comparison of financing models of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program,and seldom pays attention to its internal laws of poverty reduction.This paper used a large-scale questionnaire survey to demonstrate for the firsttime the positive impact of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program on the improvement of rural poor families' livelihood capital,endogenous motivation,livelihood strategy and livelihood outcome and explore the poverty reduction mechanism of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program based on the perspective of sustainable livelihood through structural equation model,probability distribution comparisons,and difference-in-difference regression model.(3)Revealed the inherent law of the difference in the poverty reduction transmission mode of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program between different types of poor families and different cognition degree poor households.In order to enhance the depth and breadth of study,this paper fully considered the economic development level of rural poor areas and the implementation characteristics of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program,and for the first-time classified poor families from six dimensions of family income structure,energy saving habits,education,age,photovoltaic power generation cognition and photovoltaic poverty alleviation program cognition.And the multi-group comparative analysis method was used to compare the differences in the poverty reduction mode of photovoltaic poverty alleviation program between different types of poor families and different cognition degree poor families,in the hope of providing provide a basis for the government to formulate policies.