Baltruszewicz, M, Steinberger, JK, Paavola, J orcid.org/0000-0001-5720-466X et al. (3 more authors) (2023) Social outcomes of energy use in the United Kingdom: Household energy footprints and their links to well-being. Ecological Economics, 205. 107686. ISSN 0921-8009
Abstract
How energy relates to human need satisfaction, for whom, and with what wellbeing outcomes has remained under-researched. We address this gap by investigating the relationship between household energy footprint and well-being in the UK. Our results indicate that car and air transportation contributed the most to the total energy footprint of high-income and high-energy users. We find significant inequalities in the distribution of energy use and that the top energy users with high well-being are driving excess energy use. A more detailed analysis reveals that individuals with protected characteristics are particularly vulnerable to energy poverty and that their contribution to overall energy demand is negligible. We find that focusing on well-being steers the attention towards questions of sufficiency, overconsumption as well as the context within which we satisfy needs. Tackling the issues of energy poverty and inequalities are important for lowering energy demand and need to be addressed as a matter of climate justice.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Consumer Expenditure Surveys; Final Energy; Household Energy Footprint; Living Cost and Food Survey; Logistic Regression; Multiregional Input–Output Analysis; Understanding Society Survey; Well-Being |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Jan 2023 15:06 |
Last Modified: | 06 Jan 2023 15:06 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107686 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107686 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:194270 |