TY - JOUR
T1 - European transition toward climate neutrality
T2 - Is renewable energy fueling energy poverty across Europe?
AU - Muhammad, Sulaman
AU - Pan, Yanchun
AU - Ke, Xiao
AU - Agha, Mujtaba Hassan
AU - Borah, Prasad Siba
AU - Akhtar, Muhammad
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/3/23
Y1 - 2023/3/23
N2 - The European Union (EU) embraced a fast-track transition toward renewable energy (RE) to achieve climate neutrality and make energy more affordable. However, in 2022 around 11.8% Europeans are still energy-poor. In the last 15 years, RE consumption across EU countries grew significantly, and income per capita also increased. Nevertheless, energy poverty (EP), which is usually linked to RE and income level, has not shown any meaningful decline. To investigate the impact of RE and governance quality on EP, this study utilized panel data from 27 EU countries from 2005 to 2018. Method-of-moments quantile regression was employed to explore the nexus. Next, the results show that RE at the early transition stage does not reduce EP. In contrast, RE promotes an energy price hike at the early transition stage, triggering more EP. However, when RE permeates the system and becomes a dominant energy supply source, it eventually helps reduce EP. Also, governance quality exerts a positive effect and reduces EP. The results further show that income per capita reduces EP, whereas electricity prices and unemployment rates promote EP.
AB - The European Union (EU) embraced a fast-track transition toward renewable energy (RE) to achieve climate neutrality and make energy more affordable. However, in 2022 around 11.8% Europeans are still energy-poor. In the last 15 years, RE consumption across EU countries grew significantly, and income per capita also increased. Nevertheless, energy poverty (EP), which is usually linked to RE and income level, has not shown any meaningful decline. To investigate the impact of RE and governance quality on EP, this study utilized panel data from 27 EU countries from 2005 to 2018. Method-of-moments quantile regression was employed to explore the nexus. Next, the results show that RE at the early transition stage does not reduce EP. In contrast, RE promotes an energy price hike at the early transition stage, triggering more EP. However, when RE permeates the system and becomes a dominant energy supply source, it eventually helps reduce EP. Also, governance quality exerts a positive effect and reduces EP. The results further show that income per capita reduces EP, whereas electricity prices and unemployment rates promote EP.
KW - Electricity prices
KW - Energy poverty
KW - Governance quality
KW - Non-renewable energy
KW - Renewable energy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150766600&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2023.03.090
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2023.03.090
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85150766600
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 208
SP - 181
EP - 190
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
ER -