Burlinson, A. orcid.org/0000-0001-5156-0057, Davillas, A. and Giulietti, M. (2025) Socioeconomic inequality in low-carbon technology adoption. Energy Economics, 143. 108244. ISSN 0140-9883
Abstract
The widespread adoption of low-carbon technologies (LCTs) by residential consumers is a cornerstone of net zero targets worldwide; however, LCT adoption may not be equally distributed across socioeconomic groups. Our paper contributes to the related literature by exploring socioeconomic inequality in LCT adoption and its underlying sources. We exploit nationally representative longitudinal data on the adoption of three key LCTs (solar photovoltaics, solar water heating, and electric vehicles) in the UK. We investigate the aggregate role of predetermined socioeconomic factors in determining socioeconomic inequalities in LCT adoption. We further contribute to the literature by employing Shapley-decomposition techniques to reveal the relative contribution of each individual socioeconomic factor to the total estimated socioeconomic inequality. Our results suggest that socioeconomic inequalities in LCT adoption have fallen over the last decade but remain prevalent, non-negligible in magnitude and highly statistically significant. Our analysis of longitudinal LCT adoption patterns shows that those consumers who have recently adopted LCTs, are contributing to the reduction in the observed socioeconomic inequalities over time. Policies targeting groups with the most disadvantaged socioeconomic background are crucial in order to mitigate the observed inequalities, potentially hindering a more rapid low-carbon transition.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). |
Keywords: | Technology adoption; Inequality; Low carbon technologies; Renewable resources |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Economics (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number UK ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE UNSPECIFIED |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Feb 2025 12:37 |
Last Modified: | 05 Feb 2025 12:37 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108244 |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:222918 |