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Reducing energy poverty in deprived regions or supporting new developments in metropolitan suburbs? Regional differences in the use of subsidies for home energy efficiency renovations
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This paper contributes to existing research on home energy efficiency renovations by analysing the extent to which regional differences in the distribution of subsidies for renovations are related to geographical and socioeconomic factors, by analysing statistical data for districts in the Czech Republic. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that it maps and analyses not only regional differences in the rate of drawing subsidies and its determinants, but also differences in the way these subsidies are used (whether for reducing the energy intensity of existing houses by insulation, implementing renewable energy technologies or building new houses with low energy intensity). The analysis revealed significant correlations between the amount of subsidies drawn in districts per capita and variables which indicate territorial stability and social capital. There are significant differences in the rate of drawing subsidies between specific regions that are considered as economically deprived and where people are at higher risk of energy poverty. While border regions in the east of the country show an above-average use of funds for insulation of existing houses, in the largest cities and their suburban areas people are more likely to use subsidies for construction of new houses. The results indicate that subsidies should be redistributed and targeted more effectively in respect to the declared objectives of the program.
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... It is therefore necessary for states to make policies ensuring efficient fossil fuels removal and reduction of income inequality. Energy poverty also influences donations for renewables use [29]. ...
The problem of energy poverty (EP), when energy becomes unaffordable for some population groups, is not only a problem for developing countries, but this phenomenon is appearing more and more often in European countries. In Europe, it is estimated that 50 to 125 million people are living in energy poverty. We hear more and more about energy poverty in connection with the current energy crisis and rising energy prices, but also because of insufficient renewable use. Due to increasing energy prices, we are increasingly hearing about the deepening energy poverty in Slovakia. This study aims to evaluate the development of energy poverty in Slovakia compared to other EU countries. The situation is studied from the view of the number of heating and cooling days, the percentage of the population that cannot maintain adequate heat at home, the percentage of the population that lacks heat, and the percentage of residents without enough heat. During the research, we used distribution analysis, trend analysis, analysis of variance, and one-way analysis. The main results show that the heating degree days (HDD) index recorded a decrease, the cooling degree days (CDD) index recorded an increase, and energy poverty is most obvious in a low-income group of inhabitants, having shortage of heat, when renewable energy sources (RES) use contributes to the mitigation of energy poverty. Solving the unfavorable situation of energy poverty is possible by increasing the share of renewables used in the gross final energy consumption for heating and cooling, primarily in residential buildings. The results provide information for policymakers regarding the triple bottom line approach (people, planet, and profit).
... It is therefore necessary for states to adopt policies that ensure the efficient displacement of fossil fuels and reduce income inequality. Energy poverty also affects the state of drawing subsidies for the use of renewable energy sources [29]. ...
The problem of energy poverty, when energy becomes unaffordable for some population group, is not only a problem for developing countries, but this phenomenon is appearing more and more often in European countries as well. In Europe, it is estimated that 50 to 125 million people are at risk of energy poverty. We hear more and more about energy poverty in connection with the current energy crisis and rising energy prices, but also as a result of insufficient use of renewable energy sources. Due to rising energy prices, we are increasingly hearing about deepening energy poverty in Slovakia as well. The aim of the contribution is to examine the development of energy poverty in Slovakia compared to other EU countries. The situation is studied from the view of the number of days of heating and cooling, the percentage of the population that cannot maintain adequate heat at home, the percentage of the population that has a lack of heat and the percentage of residents without enough heat. During the research, we used distribution analysis, trend analysis, analysis of variance and one-way analysis. The main results show that HDD index recorded decrease, CDD index recorded increase, and Energy poverty is most obvious in low-income group of inhabitants, having shortage of heat, when RES use contribute to mitigation of energy poverty. Solving the unfavorable situation with energy poverty is possible by increasing the share of Renewable energy sources in the gross final energy consumption for heating and cooling, primarily in residential buildings. The results provide information for policy makers in area of economic, social and environmental decision-making.
... Researchers proved that upgrading building fixtures, equipment, and envelope components could achieve savings beyond 45% in energy and water consumption [2]. Noteworthy, households or the residential sector represents about 26% of final energy consumption or nearly 17% of gross inland energy consumption in the EU [3] Achieving a low energy standard while being cost-efficient in the existing building is challenging as it is crucial to assess the whole lifecycle in terms of costs and environmental impact [4]. Moreover, the lack of open data about the existing buildings makes it difficult to analyze the building's actual state, measure progress in building decarbonization, and raise public awareness about the importance of refurbishment, design renovation, and maintenance strategies [5]. ...
European directives and strategies, such as the ‘European Green Deal’ and the ‘Ren-ovation Wave’, point out the importance of the building sector in achieving the climate goals set by the European Union for 2050. However, a higher renovation rate for the existing buildings is required to achieve these goals. Many barriers prevent the renovation rate from growing. Regarding financial barriers, the long payback times of renovation interventions and the high risk perceived by the potential investors make the renovation rate remain low. Based on data from energy performance certificates, this research proposes a data-driven method to create economic retrofit scenarios for residential buildings using Artificial Intelligence techniques and Monte Carlo simulations. Namely, energy savings have been predicted using an Artificial Neural Network on clusters of residential buildings and the Life Cycle Costs forecasted by Monte Carlo simulations taking into account the uncertainty in many of the inputs. Results obtained by applying the method to a region in northern Italy illustrate two scenarios for the energy retrofit of the built environment, one assuming a payback time of fifteen years and the other of twenty-five years. In both cases, the maximum allowable investment, which varies according to the specific characteristics of the buildings, is much lower than the retrofit costs recorded in the same area in recent years.
... Such locations often lack effective communication campaigns, education programs and consultancy services for retrofitting homes. These are key elements in tackling energy poverty and reducing regional economic disparities (Putnam and Brown, 2021;Frantál and Dvořák, 2022). Perhaps more importantly, our results show that in all countries, a significant portion of households were unable to keep their homes at comfortable temperature levels and, as a consequence, their coping mechanisms pushed them to sacrifice thermal comfort with potential impacts on their health and safety (Ormandy and Ezratty, 2012;Health and Safety Executive, 2022). ...
Energy and mobility poverty limits people's choices and opportunities and negatively impinges upon structural economic and social welfare patterns. It also hampers the ability of planners to implement more equitable and just decarbonization pathways. Research has revealed that climate policies have imposed a financial burden on low-income and other vulnerable groups by increasing food and energy prices, leading as well to global inequality. Similarly, researchers have warned that in developing countries, emission mitigation policies could increase poverty rates and even frustrate progress towards universal access to clean energy. This research explores whether low-income social groups experience a 'double energy vulnerability', a situation that simultaneously positions people at heightened risk of transport and energy poverty. We investigate this 'double vulnerability' through original data collection via three nationally representative surveys of Mexico (N = 1,205), the United Arab Emirates (N = 1,141), Ireland and Northern Ireland (N = 1,860). We draw from this original data to elaborate on the sociodemographic attributes, expenditure and behaviour emerging from energy and transport use, focusing on themes such as equity, behaviour and vulnerability. We propose energy and transport poverty indexes that allow us to summarize the key contributing factors to energy and transport poverty in the countries studied and uncover a strong correlation between these two salient forms of poverty. Our results suggest that energy and transport poverty are common issues regardless of the very different national, and even sub-national, contexts. We conclude that energy and transport poverty requires target policy interventions suitable for all segments of society, thus enabling contextually-tailored, just energy transitions.
... in population size or experiencing marginalisation (Frantál and Dvořák 2022). Considering recognition and epistemic justice in the knowledge production processes of large-scale projects can lead to more impact ful research and societal outcomes that better address climate change across multiple regions. ...
We develop and apply the concept of equitable knowledge co-production (EKC) by proposing a reflexive framework to support inclusive stakeholder engagement with diverse knowledge-holders. This framework is built on the authors’ experiences of leading three ongoing Horizon 2020 projects, and its goal is to contribute to the realisation of epistemic and recognition justice in the context of large-scale research and innovation projects by raising awareness of how knowledge co-production is carried out during the project proposal and implementation phases.
The energy poverty (EP) trap empowers policymakers to confront urgent issues related to energy, which also gives them the opportunity to deal with the dilemma of carbon lock-in (CLI). Based on provincial-level data in China during 2002–2017 and by employing the Instrumental Variable-Generalized Method of Moments (IV-GMM) estimation model, we empirically examine the direct impact of EP on CLI, as well as the asymmetric effects on CLI from EP. This paper also documents the moderating and mediating effects of the EP-CLI nexus. We find that (1) EP significantly leads to a higher level of CLI, and their positive relationship means that alleviating EP is essential for cutting CLI. A rise of 1% in EP results in a corresponding increase of 0.1680% in CLI.; (2) EP shows a more obvious positive influence on CLI in areas with a lower level of CLI; (3) renewable energy technology innovation shows a moderating role and helps to reduce the positive impact of EP on CLI, which means the synergic effect of EP and technological innovation reduces the externalities of EP on CLI; (4) EP directly influences CLI by restraining carbon efficiency by encouraging the use of transitional fossil fuels and inhibiting energy consumption transition. EP also directly exacerbates the CLI dilemma. Therefore, we propose some suggestions for policymakers to address the trap of EP and cope with the dilemma of CLI.
Understanding free-riding is central to effective household energy retrofit subsidy policymaking. We replicate a Swiss study on free-riding prevalence in household energy retrofitting in Norway (Studer & Rieder, 2019). Compared to the original studies free-riding prevalence of 50%, we find only 10%, indicating that Norwegian free-riding is low. Similar to the original study, we find that the use of advisory service and having a good perception of the implementer is associated with not free-riding, but argue these findings should not be interpreted entirely causally, as confounding variables can also explain this association. Finally, we find that Norwegian retrofit subsidies are heavily focused on high-income households, which has ethical implications.
Comparing the subsidy systems of the two countries, our findings indicate that raising the energy standard threshold for receiving retrofit subsidies leads to less free-riding, but could stimulate less retrofitting as a whole and focuses distribution of the subsidies on to rich households.
An improved understanding of the geographical unevenness of the global energy transition is important. The concept of 'sociotechnical imaginaries' has been used extensively for understanding how desired technology futures are envisioned and differentially articulated in various contexts. Supplementing this, the concept of 'nature imaginaries' is proposed in this article, to specifically address collective moral visions of human/nature relations that underwrite discourses and actions by various actors. Nature plays an active role in both types of imaginaries. Their complex interactions play a part in how energy transitions unfold. The article uses this framework for a description of the energy situation in Iceland, and its largely successful transition towards renewable energy through the development of hydropower and geothermal resources. Particular sociotechnical and nature imaginaries, sometimes opposed to each other, are discernible. The article argues that the analysis of conflicting imaginaries at work in specific energy transitions might help in identifying leverage points from where it is possible to work in a small way towards a global transition.
Heat pumps are a key technology for improving energy efficiency as they can significantly reduce energy costs and emissions. Given the significant role of heat pumps in carbon neutrality pathways, and pressure for related national energy efficiency programs, it is important to examine economic profitability of heat pump investments and their relative environmental and social benefits. This paper aims to answer the following main research question: are areas with lower housing prices and income less likely to invest into energy efficiency? The paper finds that in Finland heat pumps are already very profitable and converting buildings’ heating systems into heat pumps creates major environmental and economic benefits for the residents. The cost of heating and heat pump investment costs does not vary between locations whereas housing prices, rents and income do. Neighborhoods with lower housing prices have less motivation and capability to invest into heat pumps. Urban areas with positive housing price development, higher income and better financing options will likely invest into energy efficiency without subsidies. Potential subsidies should be allocated into areas with lower housing prices, because emissions are evenly distributed, and lower income areas pay relatively more for energy. Energy efficiency subsidies could be tied into housing prices or more specifically into property tax, which is universally collected in most countries. Property tax could be used to guide energy efficiency investments into locations where they would not be carried out otherwise. For areas that do not need subsidies, this paper recommends that awareness should be increased, because the economic and carbon emission reduction potential of energy efficiency measures is still not well understood.
This study uses a spatial Durbin error model (SDEM) approach to analyze adoption trends for residential energy-efficiency measures (EEMs) in New York state. Model results are based on socioeconomic, building, and household demographic characteristics during the 2012–2016 period. Our study’s results confirm that a positive correlation exists between EEM uptake and multifamily buildings, gas-heated homes, education effects, and spatial spillover effects among neighboring ZIP codes. The results show that building attributes hold a relatively high explanatory power over EEM adoption compared with socioeconomic characteristics. Our results show that energy-efficiency policies can create positive and significant neighborly effects in promoting EEM adoption. The developed SDEM methodological framework provides useful insights in identifying energy-efficiency opportunities that exist in rural, suburban, and urban communities, highlighting the need to review policy incentives periodically to address underlying changes in the built environment and spatial disparities in energy-efficiency investments.
The energy poverty derived from socio-economic imbalances affects mostly households with fewer economic resources, being social housing complexes one of the most vulnerable sectors. The insufficient access to energy and the incapability to maintain dwellings at an adequate temperature can have negative impact on people’s health due to the prolonged exposure to poor hygrothermal conditions. Therefore, the prioritization of building retrofitting actions must be carried out regarding the actual state of the housing and the family economy. This paper proposes the definition of a prioritization map that gave a general knowledge of the energy vulnerability situation of the existing building stock. To this end, the dwelling’s energy performance is analysed, focusing on the correlation among its characteristics and the energy vulnerability of its inhabitants. In this way, dwellings with high energy poverty potential are identified in order to develop different energy retrofitting strategies. By applying this method to 14 case studies of social housing in Bilbao, Spain, it was obtained a prioritization map with six levels of vulnerability that can serve as a tool for public entities to design their future strategies. It has been proven that building compactness and year of construction are important factors with a great impact on the heating demand and final consumption in dwellings. Acknowledging the vulnerability context of the building stock eases the decision-making process and the definition of intervention guidelines, prioritizing those in a situation of greater vulnerability.
In this year, 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has imposed new challenges for most human activities. Time-geography is a theoretical approach with great potential for analysing the consequences of the new disease and other disturbances, and this article aims at identifying possible developments of interest for the approach in the post-Covid era. The article addresses challenges that emerge for time-geographic research from the perspective of massive changes in human behaviour, regarding time-space activity patterns, caused by the globally diffusing disease. The implications of the pandemic are discussed with respect to four areas: (i) time-geographic techniques; (ii) activities and rhythms; (iii) activity spaces; and (iv) social issues and perceptions. The time-geographic concepts to be scrutinised are constraints, virtual time space and bundles, and stations and paths. In addition, the article introduces this Special Issue of the Moravian Geographical Reports on 'Current issues, methods and applications in time-geography', contributions which for evident reasons were written before the onset of the pandemic.
This study assesses the effectiveness of the Slovenian subsidy program introduced in 2009 on household decisions for energy-efficient building retrofits. A discrete choice regression model with individual random effects is estimated, using a retrospective panel data of 6,882 Slovenian households covering the period from 2006 to 2014. The objective of this study is to identify factors that influence the decisions of Slovenian households to undertake energy-efficient retrofits of their homes and to examine the effectiveness of the subsidy program. The results reveal decisive factors for implementing energy-efficient retrofits to be a household’s financial status, past retrofit activity, the location of homes, the building’s age and type, and electricity expenditures. Regional climate differences and economic activity (GDP p.c.) also trigger energy-efficient retrofits. During the period between 2009 and 2011, the subsidy program proved to be ineffective, implying the presence of free-riders. In contrast, evidence on the positive effect of the program on retrofit rates in the years 2012 to 2014 was found with a varying share of free-riders. In 2012, free-ridership was not detected, coinciding with a significantly increased amount of available funds, while in the following years the share of free-riders increased to 52.3% and 62.0%, respectively.
Energy retrofitting of private housing is fundamental to reducing the environmental footprint of the building stock, and energy efficiency policies are based on assumptions of the effects of retrofitting, including those on further retrofitting, also called temporal spillover. No study has directly investigated the impact of energy retrofitting on future energy retrofits.
Our results (N = 6402) show that respondents who completed energy retrofits in the past three years are significantly more likely to undertake new energy retrofits (IRR = 3.449). This is also true when controlling for demographic variables (IRR = 2.752), attitude and self-efficacy. Younger age, lower income, higher investment capacity, a more positive attitude, and higher self-efficacy toward retrofitting are associated with more energy retrofits.
Since a strong temporal spillover effect is present in energy retrofitting, we suggest that locking in the energy building standard to a suboptimal level after partial retrofitting is not as great a challenge as previously thought. Moreover, due to the distribution of retrofits, the average number of retrofits undertaken is a misleading indicator of the trends in a nation's building stock, and subsidizing small scale-retrofits may provide major benefits for households' overall environmental footprint.
Residential energy demand accounts for a significant proportion of the UK’s carbon emissions. As ~80% of the existing housing stock is expected to be in use by 2050, low carbon retrofit is essential in meeting climate and fuel poverty targets. Recent policy has failed to deliver retrofit at scale, leading to an emerging movement of grassroots initiatives approaching the challenge through community governance. This paper explores the role of these grassroots initiatives in the UK, identifying and evaluating how they address key barriers associated with delivering retrofit at scale, including engaging households, developing local supply chains and overcoming economic barriers. The research takes a qualitative approach with ten semi-structured interviews to understand the perspectives of community practitioners, intermediaries and policymakers. Our findings suggest community-led retrofit is effective at engaging households, can contribute to local supply chain development, help households access financing, and be a valuable delivery partner for local authority fuel poverty schemes. However, while community-led retrofit offers an alternative approach to retrofit governance, it is unlikely to deliver residential retrofit at scale without a broader government programme of financial and regulatory support.
The building sector has played an important role in energy consumption over the last few decades, demanding actions to decrease it. A way to reach this goal, without affecting the occupants’ welfare, is the adoption of building energy-efficient (BEE) technologies. There are several of these technologies available, bringing lots of benefits. However, there are barriers that hinder their adoption. Before overcoming such barriers, it is necessary to know them. Thus, after examining 450 publications, from 2000 to 2018, only eight presented some kind of taxonomy to the barriers, ranging from three to five categories, showing that some barriers were perhaps not considered. The dependence relationship of the barriers and the types of buildings and geographical regions as well as their evolution has not yet been evaluated. The recommendations to overcome such barriers are spread throughout the literature and have not yet been compiled. This review gathered 105 barriers that were grouped into six categories (Financial, Market, Technological, Professional, Political and Behavioural), followed by their respective timelines, as well as the dependence relationship of them and the types of buildings and geographical regions. A compilation of the strategies to overcome such barriers is also presented. These results, besides supporting the formulation of policies for the adoption of BEE technologies, clarify the structure of each group of barriers and allow researchers to identify the most relevant ones for their scenario followed by the starting point to overcome them, focusing their attention on neuralgic points.