{"title":"Who is “energy poor\" in the EU?","authors":"Sofia Maier , Ilda Dreoni","doi":"10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114869","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The 2022–2023 surge in global energy prices and the fairness challenges of the green transition have revived debates on energy poverty in Europe. However, the lack of consensus on measuring energy poverty hinders effective policy formulation and evaluation. This paper analyzes the EU-wide distribution and profiles of the “energy poor\" using four established indicators, two subjective and two expenditure-based, derived from statistically matched HBS and SILC household surveys. Our results suggest significant disparities: expenditure-based measures capture broader populations, particularly in middle- and high-income EU countries, with minimal overlap between indicators. Notably, only 0.3 % of the population is simultaneously classified as energy poor by the four indicators, while 40 % enter this group by at least one measure. By examining who is included or excluded under each indicator and their links to income and expenditure, we provide new insights into the potential heterogeneous distributional impacts of policies aimed at tackling energy poverty in Europe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11672,"journal":{"name":"Energy Policy","volume":"208 ","pages":"Article 114869"},"PeriodicalIF":9.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Energy Policy","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421525003763","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The 2022–2023 surge in global energy prices and the fairness challenges of the green transition have revived debates on energy poverty in Europe. However, the lack of consensus on measuring energy poverty hinders effective policy formulation and evaluation. This paper analyzes the EU-wide distribution and profiles of the “energy poor" using four established indicators, two subjective and two expenditure-based, derived from statistically matched HBS and SILC household surveys. Our results suggest significant disparities: expenditure-based measures capture broader populations, particularly in middle- and high-income EU countries, with minimal overlap between indicators. Notably, only 0.3 % of the population is simultaneously classified as energy poor by the four indicators, while 40 % enter this group by at least one measure. By examining who is included or excluded under each indicator and their links to income and expenditure, we provide new insights into the potential heterogeneous distributional impacts of policies aimed at tackling energy poverty in Europe.
期刊介绍:
Energy policy is the manner in which a given entity (often governmental) has decided to address issues of energy development including energy conversion, distribution and use as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to contribute to climate change mitigation. The attributes of energy policy may include legislation, international treaties, incentives to investment, guidelines for energy conservation, taxation and other public policy techniques.
Energy policy is closely related to climate change policy because totalled worldwide the energy sector emits more greenhouse gas than other sectors.