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Europe's Green Deal: Is the middle class left behind?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15678/PG.2022.61.3.02Keywords:
Residential, energy consumption, human development, HDI, Fit for 55, Energy Poverty, Social Climate Fund, energy wellbeingAbstract
Ensuring the well-being of EU citizens requires a broader awareness of the implications of reducing fossil fuel use. This article identifies the plight of households unable to improve their well-being without increasing the consumption of fossil fuels. Decoupling household well-being from energy consumption requires refining current EU policies in the Fit for 55 policy package. The EU's Social Climate Fund contains €87 billion collected from a carbon tax on petrol, diesel, and heating. However, as this article shows, human well-being in some EU Member States will decrease in social groups not deemed vulnerable. Changes in household energy use in the EU have a direct (not only indirect) impact on Human Development Index (HDI) measures; any increase or decrease in energy is immediately reflected in human well-being. Tackling energy poverty is a fundamental issue, but in this case at least the bottom two-thirds of the middle class (which roughly represents the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quintiles) also need support. Not addressing this funding gap could amplify anti-European voices, increasing the sense of social injustice and exclusion.
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References
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Leung, C. S., & Meisen, P. (2005). How electricity consumption affects social and eco-nomic development by comparing low, medium and high human development countries. Global Energy Network Institute, 12.
Martínez, D. M., & Ebenhack, B. W. (2008). Understanding the role of energy consump-tion in human development through the use of saturation phenomena. Energy Poli-cy, 36(4), 1430–1435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2007.12.016
Mazur, A. (2011). Does increasing energy or electricity consumption improve quality of life in industrial nations? Energy Policy, 39(5), 2568–2572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.02.024
Nadimi, R., & Tokimatsu, K. (2018). Modeling of quality of life in terms of energy and electricity consumption. Applied Energy, 212, 1282–1294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.01.006
Ouedraogo, N. S. (2013). Energy consumption and human development: Evidence from a panel cointegration and error correction model. Energy, 63, 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2013.09.067
Pachauri, S., & Spreng, D. (2004). Energy Use and Energy Access in Relation to Poverty. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(3), 271–278. JSTOR.
Pasten, C., & Santamarina, J. C. (2012). Energy and quality of life. Energy Policy, 49, 468–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.051
Pasternak, A. D. (2000). Global energy futures and human development: A framework for analysis. http://inis.iaea.org/Search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:33031115
Ray, S., Ghosh, B., Bardhan, S., & Bhattacharyya, B. (2016). Studies on the impact of en-ergy quality on human development index. Renewable Energy, 92, 117–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.01.061
Ridao-Cano, C., & Bodewig, C. (2018). Growing united: Upgrading Europe’s convergence machine : Overview. World Bank. https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/852701520358672738/Overview
Steinberger, J. K., & Roberts, J. T. (2009). Across a Moving Threshold: Energy, carbon and the efficiency of meeting global human development needs. Social Ecology Working Paper.
Steinberger, J. K., & Roberts, J. T. (2010). From constraint to sufficiency: The decoupling of energy and carbon from human needs, 1975–2005. Ecological Economics, 70(2), 425–433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.09.014
Sušnik, J., & Zaag, P. van der. (2017). Correlation and causation between the UN Human Development Index and national and personal wealth and resource exploitation. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 30(1), 1705–1723. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2017.1383175
Sweidan, O. D., & Alwaked, A. A. (2016). Economic development and the energy intensity of human well-being: Evidence from the GCC countries. Renewable and Sustaina-ble Energy Reviews, 55, 1363–1369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.06.001
Szép, T., Tóth, G., & LaBelle, M. C. (2022). Farewell to the European Union’s east-west divide: Decoupling energy lifts the well-being of households, 2000–2018. Regional Statistics, 12(3), 159–190. https://doi.org/10.15196/RS120307
Tran, N. V., Tran, Q. V., Do, L. T. T., Dinh, L. H., & Do, H. T. T. (2019). Trade off be-tween environment, energy consumption and human development: Do levels of economic development matter? Energy, 173, 483–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2019.02.042
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Wu, Q., Maslyuk, S., & Clulow, V. (2012). Energy Consumption Inequality and Human Development. Energy Efficiency, 18.
Arthur Cox LLP. (2022). Energy Transition: One year on from Fit for 55, REPowerEU signals further significant reform. Arthur Cox LLP. https://acmainweb.azurewebsites.net/knowledge/energy-transition-one-year-on-from-fit-for-55-repowereu-signals-further-significant-reform/
Arto, I., Capellán-Pérez, I., Lago, R., Bueno, G., & Bermejo, R. (2016). The energy re-quirements of a developed world. Energy for Sustainable Development, 33, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2016.04.001
Assadzadeh, A., & Nategh, H. (2015). The relationship between per capita electricity con-sumption and human development indices. In Proceedings of 6thIASTEM Interna-tional Conference (pp. 1–7). https://www.worldresearchlibrary.org/up_proc/pdf/117-144870270051-57.pdf
Brecha, R. J. (2019). Threshold Electricity Consumption Enables Multiple Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability, 11(18), Article 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11185047
Dias, R. A., Mattos, C. R., & P. Balestieri, J. A. (2006). The limits of human development and the use of energy and natural resources. Energy Policy, 34(9), 1026–1031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2004.09.008
Dutta, S., Lanvin, B., & Wunsch-Vincent, S. (Eds.). (2018). The Global Innovation Index 2018: Energizing the World with Innovation. World Intellectual Property Organiza-tion.
European Climate Foundation, & Cambridge Econometrics. (2021, May 25). Exploring the trade-offs in different paths to reduce transport and heating emissions in Europe. Transport & Environment. https://www.transportenvironment.org/discover/exploring-the-trade-offs-in-different-paths-to-reduce-transport-and-heating-emissions-in-europe/
European Commission. (2021a). A European Green Deal [Text]. https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
European Commission. (2021b). Public consultation on the revised Climate, Energy and Environmental Aid Guidelines (CEEAG)20. https://ec.europa.eu/competition-policy/public-consultations/2021-ceeag_hu
Eurostat. (2022). Database—Eurostat. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database
Gaye, A. (2007). Access to Energy and Human Development. 25, 22.
IEECP. (2022). A SOCIALLY-JUST EU RENOVATION WAVE. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EU POLICYMAKERS BASED ON FINDINGS IN 10 MEMBER STATES. (p. 27). European Energy and Climate Policy (IEECP).
Jacmart, M. C., Arditi, M., & Arditi, I. (1979). The world distribution of commercial ener-gy consumption. Energy Policy, 7(3), 199–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-4215(79)90063-6
Jacobson, A., Milman, A. D., & Kammen, D. M. (2005). Letting the (energy) Gini out of the bottle: Lorenz curves of cumulative electricity consumption and Gini coeffi-cients as metrics of energy distribution and equity. Energy Policy, 33(14), 1825–1832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2004.02.017
Jorgenson, A. K., Alekseyko, A., & Giedraitis, V. (2014). Energy consumption, human well-being and economic development in central and eastern European nations: A cautionary tale of sustainability. Energy Policy, 66, 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.11.020
Kanagawa, M., & Nakata, T. (2008). Assessment of access to electricity and the socio-economic impacts in rural areas of developing countries. Energy Policy, 36(6), 2016–2029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.01.041
Krugmann, H., & Goldemberg, J. (1983). The energy cost of satisfying basic human needs. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 24(1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-1625(83)90062-8
Kurmayer, N. J. (2022, December 18). EU approves CO2 tax on heating and transport, softened by new social climate fund. Www.Euractiv.Com. https://www.euractiv.com/section/emissions-trading-scheme/news/eu-agrees-co2-tax-on-heating-and-transport-fuels-softened-by-new-social-climate-fund/
LaBelle, M. C. (2020). Energy Cultures. Technology, Justice, and Geopolitics in Eastern Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/energy-cultures-9781788975759.html
LaBelle, M. C., & Georgiev, A. (2016). The Socio-Political Capture of Utilities: The ex-pense of low energy prices in Bulgaria and Hungary (p. 21). https://erranet.org/download/socio-political-capture-of-utilities-bulgaria-hungary/. https://erranet.org/download/socio-political-capture-of-utilities-bulgaria-hungary/
LaBelle, M. C., Tóth, G., & Szép, T. (2022). Not Fit for 55: Prioritizing Human Well-Being in Residential Energy Consumption in the European Union. Energies, 15(18), Article 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15186687
Leung, C. S., & Meisen, P. (2005). How electricity consumption affects social and eco-nomic development by comparing low, medium and high human development countries. Global Energy Network Institute, 12.
Martínez, D. M., & Ebenhack, B. W. (2008). Understanding the role of energy consump-tion in human development through the use of saturation phenomena. Energy Poli-cy, 36(4), 1430–1435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2007.12.016
Mazur, A. (2011). Does increasing energy or electricity consumption improve quality of life in industrial nations? Energy Policy, 39(5), 2568–2572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.02.024
Nadimi, R., & Tokimatsu, K. (2018). Modeling of quality of life in terms of energy and electricity consumption. Applied Energy, 212, 1282–1294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.01.006
Ouedraogo, N. S. (2013). Energy consumption and human development: Evidence from a panel cointegration and error correction model. Energy, 63, 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2013.09.067
Pachauri, S., & Spreng, D. (2004). Energy Use and Energy Access in Relation to Poverty. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(3), 271–278. JSTOR.
Pasten, C., & Santamarina, J. C. (2012). Energy and quality of life. Energy Policy, 49, 468–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.051
Pasternak, A. D. (2000). Global energy futures and human development: A framework for analysis. http://inis.iaea.org/Search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:33031115
Ray, S., Ghosh, B., Bardhan, S., & Bhattacharyya, B. (2016). Studies on the impact of en-ergy quality on human development index. Renewable Energy, 92, 117–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.01.061
Ridao-Cano, C., & Bodewig, C. (2018). Growing united: Upgrading Europe’s convergence machine : Overview. World Bank. https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/852701520358672738/Overview
Steinberger, J. K., & Roberts, J. T. (2009). Across a Moving Threshold: Energy, carbon and the efficiency of meeting global human development needs. Social Ecology Working Paper.
Steinberger, J. K., & Roberts, J. T. (2010). From constraint to sufficiency: The decoupling of energy and carbon from human needs, 1975–2005. Ecological Economics, 70(2), 425–433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.09.014
Sušnik, J., & Zaag, P. van der. (2017). Correlation and causation between the UN Human Development Index and national and personal wealth and resource exploitation. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 30(1), 1705–1723. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2017.1383175
Sweidan, O. D., & Alwaked, A. A. (2016). Economic development and the energy intensity of human well-being: Evidence from the GCC countries. Renewable and Sustaina-ble Energy Reviews, 55, 1363–1369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.06.001
Szép, T., Tóth, G., & LaBelle, M. C. (2022). Farewell to the European Union’s east-west divide: Decoupling energy lifts the well-being of households, 2000–2018. Regional Statistics, 12(3), 159–190. https://doi.org/10.15196/RS120307
Tran, N. V., Tran, Q. V., Do, L. T. T., Dinh, L. H., & Do, H. T. T. (2019). Trade off be-tween environment, energy consumption and human development: Do levels of economic development matter? Energy, 173, 483–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2019.02.042
United Nations. (2015). What is Human Development? In Human Development Reports. United Nations. https://hdr.undp.org/content/what-human-development
Weiner, C., & Szép, T. (2022). The Hungarian utility cost reduction programme: An im-pact assessment. Energy Strategy Reviews, 40, 100817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2022.100817
Wu, Q., Maslyuk, S., & Clulow, V. (2012). Energy Consumption Inequality and Human Development. Energy Efficiency, 18.
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2023-10-24
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LaBelle, M. ., & Szép, T. (2023). Europe’s Green Deal: Is the middle class left behind?. Journal of Public Governance, 61(3). https://doi.org/10.15678/PG.2022.61.3.02
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