Household energy consumption, sustainability and social justice

A quantitative analysis of the potential impacts of household energy quotas on Hungarian households

Abstract

Energy capping schemes aiming to mitigate the climate and ecological crisis must ensure a sustainable as well as just transition, in which the interests of the poor and marginalized are also taken into account. The theoretical framework of this research is set by justice concepts (distribution, recognition and representational justice), which were assessed in theories related to energy use: environmental or climate justice, sufficiency, and energy poverty as energy injustice. The research was based on reviewing the international literature on household energy consumption, and on energy consumption patterns of the Hungarian population.

This publication analyzes the correlations between energy consumption patterns of the Hungarian population and justice related concepts of energy consumption, as well as whether residential energy capping schemes that provide equal per capita energy quotas really have a positive effect on poorer households. Hungarian households can be classified into four clusters based on the amounts spent on heating energy sources: households using 1. piped gas, 2. district heating, 3. mixture of gas and electricity, 4. mostly solid fuel. These clusters differ significantly from each other based on 20 variables related to social justice. According to the research results, those who heat with solid fuel (firewood) mostly live under the least favorable housing and living conditions, pay proportionally more for energy from total housing costs, have lower levels of education than household members from the other three clusters, and are underrepresented in the richest income decile. Furthermore, those belonging to this cluster spend more on energy than the Hungarian average, which means that if an energy capping system based on an equal per capita distribution mechanism is implemented, it would not necessarily affect them favorably. In order to increase the well-being of poor households by introducing a residential energy quota system, other aspects of social justice, including housing and living conditions, must be taken into account instead of an equal per capita quota distribution mechanism.