CS1: Social Dimensions of Energy Transition

In the European Union (EU) policy landscape, there is a pressing need to accelerate the energy transition while simultaneously addressing energy poverty (EP). EP is a significant problem across the EU, with considerable variation among Member States in both characteristics and severity. The need to tackle EP is embedded in recent directives, such as the revised Energy Efficiency Directive (2023) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2024), which outline targeted approaches for vulnerable households and social housing. Effectively addressing EP requires a deeper understanding of its causes and effects, as frameworks for measuring and characterising this multidimensional issue continue to evolve. EP is a complex and persistent challenge affecting over 35 million Europeans, potentially exceeding 100 million in its multidimensional nature. It manifests as the inability to access affordable energy services, driven by inefficient buildings, high energy prices, and low incomes. In this work, we present research and on-the-ground activities developed under the European Commission's Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH), the central EU initiative supporting cities, regions, and national actors in diagnosing, planning, and addressing EP. EPAH advances work across the full cycle from data to knowledge to action, fostering community empowerment and social justice, directly informing European EP recommendations and national/regional strategies. To date, EPAH has supported 51 local projects across 12+ EU countries, engaging 83 local authorities and civil society organizations, with a new open call underway for 100 additional projects. A global atlas compiles EP mitigation examples across four continents, featuring over 300 inspirational cases. A framework of over 35 EP-relevant indicators - spanning climate, socio-economy, buildings, health, and mobility - is presented through an interactive dashboard, complemented by a review of indicators for local diagnosis, enabling comprehensive capture of EP's diverse facets.

A just energy transition demands more than replacing fossil fuels with renewables - it requires that the benefits of this shift are fairly shared, and that those most affected have a genuine voice in shaping it. Rural areas make this challenge visible: while large-scale renewable installations expand rapidly, local communities often remain disconnected from transition benefits, facing persistent energy poverty even as energy is produced on their doorstep. This work examines how different participatory engagement pathways can improve the design and delivery of energy transition policies in rural municipalities. Drawing on the ENTRACK project (EU LIFE CET programme), implemented across rural territories in Europe, we explore how co-design processes generate context-specific knowledge that makes local energy policies more effective and inclusive. Fieldwork in two Portuguese municipalities combined ethnographic interviews, experts interviews, policy self-assessment exercises with decision-makers, a Community of Practice, and a Municipal Regional Partnership, aiming to support the co-design of local social just energy policies. Results reveal significant inefficiencies in existing support mechanisms: current schemes - increasingly digitalized and nationally standardized - systematically fail to reach A structural mismatch between policy design and territorial realities is evident, particularly in rural contexts. Large-scale solar deployment in these territories exposes distributional tensions: whilst advancing national decarbonization targets, it generates local externalities - land use conflicts, biodiversity loss - without proportional benefit-sharing mechanisms. This work proposes a participatory governance framework wherein affected communities function as epistemic authorities, possessing granular knowledge invisible to national policymakers. Achieving inclusive climate neutrality requires bottom-up engagement, and local policies co-design, leaving no one behind - particularly in rural territories where the social and ecological dimensions of transition are most acutely felt.

This paper examines the distributional and welfare effects of Brazil's Social Electricity Tariff Program (TSEE), focusing on a 2022 reform that automatically enrolled all eligible households. Using rich administrative data at the household-month level and difference-in-differences models, we show that automatic enrollment raised electricity consumption by 3.4\% on average and reduced arrears among households in favelas. Leveraging an IV strategy, we estimate a price elasticity of –0.35 and quantify welfare impacts through a compensating variation framework. Results indicate sizable gains for beneficiaries with limited costs to non-beneficiaries, yielding a net positive welfare effect. The findings highlight the importance of reducing administrative burdens to expand access to social benefits and provide new evidence on electricity demand among low-income households.

Poverty in developing countries is exacerbated by limited access to essential energy services, such as clean cooking, information, and household climate control. Thus, universal access to affordable, reliable, and high-quality energy services becomes an essential factor for poverty alleviation (REDDY et al., 2000). Although energy poverty lacks a consensual definition, most studies consider it a multidimensional phenomenon related to limited access to energy services-such as lighting, access to information, thermal comfort, and food preservation, among others-which influence individual well-being. Like its definition, measurement methods vary depending on the context in which the territory is inserted (BOUZAROVSKI; PETROVA, 2015; CARHUAMACA, 2023; OCHOA, 2014). In the study of this phenomenon, diagnosis is an important step for characterizing the population experiencing energy poverty and for comparing how the problem manifests in each territory. In this context, there is a need to understand how the literature approaches measurement instruments for cross-country comparisons, as well as temporal and regional methodological disparities. In this way, it will be possible to identify research networks and trends in the field. Therefore, the present study seeks to conduct a systematic review of the scientific production on energy poverty indicators, with a focus on instruments that enable cross-country comparisons. To this end, a bibliometric study is employed using metadata extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, processed in the R-Studio software through the bibliometrix package. The study combines descriptive analysis and an analytical literature review, aiming to survey the methods used to measure energy poverty at an aggregate level for countries.

This paper examines how German citizens evaluate the goals of the energy transition relative to its nationwide implementation. While policy research has long documented discrepancies between political targets and implementation outcomes, less is known about whether the public perceives such gaps in energy policy. We advance the literature by distinguishing between acceptance of energy transition goals and evaluations of their implementation, identifying a systematic goal–implementation acceptance gap.
Our empirical analysis draws on an online survey of 3,487 households in Germany conducted in November and December 2023, during the ongoing energy crisis.
We find a pronounced goal–implementation gap. Although support for overarching energy transition goals is high, assessments of implementation are markedly more critical. In our sample, 51% support the goals but evaluate implementation negatively, compared to 27% who support both goals and implementation, and 21% who reject both. This indicates substantial dissatisfaction with implementation even among those who endorse the transition in principle.
Using multivariate regression analysis, we find that attitudes toward goals and implementation are shaped by largely similar factors, including perceived exposure to transition-related costs and risks, education and policy literacy, and party preference. Expected personal consequences-especially concerns about jobs, housing costs, and financial security-matter more for evaluations of implementation than for support of transition goals, suggesting that strengthening optimism about individual outcomes could help narrow the goal–implementation acceptance gap.
Our study provides implications for energy policy design and communication. Adjusting policy goals is unlikely to restore acceptance, whereas strengthening optimism about future-proof jobs may improve support for policy measures. More broadly, high goal support does not necessarily imply positive assessments of implemented policies, and policy skepticism does not equal rejection of the transition itself.