Empowering energy citizenship among the energy poor

Valle, Nives Della; Veronika, Czako

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2022.102654

Cited by 41 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Moreover, the risk of “locking in” energy savings through suboptimal renovations is a major decarbonisation risk as suboptimal renovations defer the opportunity to exploit the full energy saving potential of a building to a possibly much later point in the future. Outreach to hard-to-reach groups: The just transition towards climate neutrality is a key political priority, highlighting the need to reach out to vulnerable groups that traditionally have no means or funds to engage in green projects (Bouzarovski et al 2012 ; Kyprianou et al 2019 ; Della Valle and Czako 2022 ). Vulnerable groups in this context include low-income households, social housing associations, condominium multi-owners, tenants, and SMEs.…”

Section: Methodology and Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Outreach to hard-to-reach groups: The just transition towards climate neutrality is a key political priority, highlighting the need to reach out to vulnerable groups that traditionally have no means or funds to engage in green projects (Bouzarovski et al 2012 ; Kyprianou et al 2019 ; Della Valle and Czako 2022 ). Vulnerable groups in this context include low-income households, social housing associations, condominium multi-owners, tenants, and SMEs.…”

Section: Methodology and Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of European municipalities and regions in financing energy upgrades in buildings

Marina

Valle

Giulia

et al. 2023

Environ Econ Policy Stud

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Energy efficiency in buildings has a central role to play in reaching the climate neutrality goal set by the European Green Deal. With detailed knowledge of their building stock and the profile of their occupants, regional and local authorities can forge an important link between financiers, industry professionals and homeowners to ensure the successful deployment of financial schemes that support the uptake of energy efficiency upgrades. This paper provides a first assessment of the role of regional and local authorities by reviewing relevant initiatives and programmes on energy efficiency. Based on a questionnaire completed for more than 150 schemes, it explores how European municipalities and regions stimulate energy upgrades in residential, commercial and public buildings through public financial support. It is found that 60% of the examined schemes are offered in the form of grants and subsidies, and 45% of them targeted residential upgrades. The use of EU cohesion policy funds in supporting regional schemes, and promotion of energy efficiency investments at local level through the European Covenant of Mayors initiative are also explored. In spite of possible resource limitations at this level of governance, regional and local authorities are in a good position to utilise European structural or research funds to develop financial schemes, as standalone programmes or blended with national ones, thus providing additional support and funds for deep renovations. The results suggest that energy efficiency in buildings has become an important part of local and regional strategies in several European countries, but could be further enhanced.

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Section: Methodology and Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodology and Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of European municipalities and regions in financing energy upgrades in buildings

Marina

Valle

Giulia

et al. 2023

Environ Econ Policy Stud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If heterogeneous energy needs are not sufficiently recognised in policy design, transfers could be misallocated, and energy poverty perpetuated 36 (targeting problem). At the same time, if vulnerable actors are kept as passive receivers of interventions, policy decisions will only partially represent and meet their energy needs 37 (responsibility problem). Therefore, while complex societal challenges can be addressed better if involved actors act collectively 38 , this capacity to act needs to be enhanced 39 , considering individuals' surrounding context and heterogeneous motivational and cognitive structures 40 .…”

Section: Addressing Energy Poverty Through Lessons From a Behavioural...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, if the energy transition has also to seek fairness and equity, then those who directly experience those injustices, like the energy poor, have to be enabled to have a say on how to achieve these goals 37 . In this case, the application of behavioural insights could help policymakers elevate citizens from being passive policy recipients to become capable and knowledgeable thinkers 77,78 .…”

Section: Responsibility Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

EU climate action through an energy poverty lens

Vandyck

Valle

Temursho

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Carbon pricing can steer energy choices towards low-carbon fuels and foster energy conservation efforts. Simultaneously, higher fossil fuel prices may exacerbate energy poverty. A just portfolio of climate policies therefore requires a balanced instrument mix to jointly combat climate change and energy poverty. We review recent policy developments in the EU aimed at addressing energy poverty and the social implications of the climate neutrality transition. We then operationalise an affordability-based definition of energy poverty and numerically illustrate that recent EU climate policy proposals risk raising the number of energy poor when not accompanied with complementary measures, while alternative climate policy designs could lift more than 1 million households out of energy poverty through income-targeted revenue recycling schemes. While these schemes have low informational requirements and appear sufficient to avoid exacerbating energy poverty, the findings suggest that more tailored interventions are needed. Finally, we discuss how insights from behavioural economics and energy justice can help shape optimal policy packages and processes.

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“…Although possibly less rapid and with currently less megawattage capacity in global trends, smaller-scale solar rollouts nonetheless hold considerable promise of upscaling and equity through replicable community-scale models (Luke and Heynen 2020). Examples of upscaling are increasingly available in multiple contexts (DellaValle and Czako 2022), showing that cost-competitive alternatives to large-scale solar do exist and can advance just transitions. Yet these are typically not favoured by existing energy sector political economies or tend to fall back into dominant governance regimes, due to infrastructural path dependence and bureaucratic lock-ins.…”

Section: Introduction: Conceptualising Solidarity In Solar Energy Gov...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Solidaric solarities: Governance principles for transforming solar power relations

Sareen

Şorman

Stock

et al. 2023

Progress in Environmental Geography

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Solar energy has become the world's cheapest and fastest scaling electricity source. Multiple societal sectors are electrifying, and the scale and pace of change give some hope of near-future rapid climate mitigation through solar rollouts despite the bleak record to date. Critiques of utility-scale solar development foreground injustices like displacing marginalised groups and perpetuating resource inequity. Governance scholars argue for stringent regulations towards just transitions, and community energy research shows that smaller-scale solar solutions hold promise in being more equitable. Our contribution argues for the possibility of redistributive and emancipatory solar development, drawing from scholarship on governance (institutional configurations, policy mixes and cross-sectoral regulation) and scale (comparative energy geographies with attention to context-specificity and trans-local connection). We conceptualise and operationalise the term ‘solidaric solarities’ as modalities of harnessing solar energy to advance empowerment, interconnectedness and community wealth for victims of energy injustices. This focuses on political economy issues, where solar development can advance solidarity with historically marginalised groups, to create affordable distributed future renewable energy systems. The analysis underpinning this normative orientation leverages secondary research and scholarly expertise on solar rollouts. We offer pragmatic governance principles informed by values that engender solidarity, illuminating potential pathways to enable solidaric solar transitions.

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Empowering energy citizenship among the energy poor

Cited by 41 publications

References 94 publications

The role of European municipalities and regions in financing energy upgrades in buildings

The role of European municipalities and regions in financing energy upgrades in buildings

EU climate action through an energy poverty lens

Solidaric solarities: Governance principles for transforming solar power relations

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