What fuels the divide? Rural–urban energy choices in Zambia

This study analyzes rural–urban disparities in household energy choices for cooking, heating, and lighting in Zambia, using nonlinear Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition on data from 1,779 households. Rural households are 58.75 and 50.47 percentage points more likely to use firewood for cooking and heating, respectively, while urban households are 36.5 percentage points more likely to use charcoal for cooking, 30.29 for heating, and 49.86 for electricity in lighting. Socioeconomic factors, including education, income, occupation, and electricity access, explain 77.16% of the charcoal cooking gap, 68.92% for heating, and 61.70% for electricity lighting. However, 38.30% of the electricity lighting gap remains unexplained, associated with structural barriers like limited rural grid access. High urban charcoal reliance (70.4%) underscores unreliable electricity supply. Robustness of our results is confirmed via Fairlie decomposition. Policies promoting rural electrification, socioeconomic improvements, and urban electricity reliability are vital for reducing biomass reliance and fostering clean energy transitions in Zambia and other developing countries.