Social acceptance of low-carbon transport technologies is a crucial but frequently underrepresented dimension in energy system optimization models (ESOMs), despite its potential relevance for the design of effective decarbonization policies. This study examines the role of social acceptability in the transition of the European Union transport sector toward climate neutrality by integrating behavioral factors into the open-source ESOM TEMOA-Europe. In particular, social acceptability is represented through technology-specific hurdle rates, used as proxies for perceived risk and financing barriers, alongside assumptions on declining investment costs for low-carbon vehicle technologies. Four scenarios are developed and compared: (i) a Base scenario, (ii) a scenario with reduced hurdle rates for battery electric and fuel-cell vehicles, (iii) a CostSC scenario with lower investment costs for green truck technologies, and a Net0 scenario (iv) imposing a binding net-zero emissions constraint by 2050. The analysis evaluates these scenarios based on technology uptake, system costs, CO2 emissions, and critical raw material requirements. Results show that, in the passenger car sector, lower perceived risk can substantially accelerate electrification and achieve emissions reductions comparable to those obtained under stringent regulatory constraints, in some cases at lower overall system cost. By contrast, the freight sector appears considerably less responsive to such demand-side measures, indicating the need for stronger regulatory intervention. The findings also highlight that deep transport decarbonization implies a substantial increase in demand for critical raw materials, reinforcing the importance of complementary recycling and supply-chain policies.
Energy poverty: a transient or chronic condition?
Energy poverty remains a pressing challenge in the European Union, with Spain exhibiting one of the highest incidence rates. Despite an ambitious national strategy, over 20% of Spanish households continues to report difficulties maintaining adequate indoor temperatures. This study examines energy poverty dynamics in Spain using longitudinal data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) covering the period 2004–2023. We distinguish between transient and chronic energy poverty, revealing that 2.6–3.6% of households experience persistent deprivation. Vulnerability is higher among single-person and female-headed households, while education and employment significantly reduce chronic risk. By focusing on household trajectories, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of structural and temporal dimensions of energy poverty, supporting more effective policy design. Spain’s case highlights the limitations of current measures and the need for strategies addressing long-term vulnerability within a just energy transition framework.
Assessing the Economic Impact of Photovoltaic Generation on Electricity Prices and Consumer Economic Benefits under Feed-in Tariff System: Evidence from Japan
In this study, the impact of photovoltaic generation on electricity prices and net consumer benefits is evaluated by accounting for the cost of a feed-in tariff system. A structural model is utilized to estimate electricity prices in a counterfactual scenario in which photovoltaics are not generated, and the results are compared with actual prices to evaluate the consumer economic benefits of photovoltaic adoption. To quantitatively estimate the consumer economic benefit, an empirical analysis is performed by using the data on electricity prices, electricity demand, and photovoltaic generation in Japan. The results indicate positive consumer economic benefits owing to the adoption of photovoltaics in recent years, particularly during the summer, which confirms the theoretical prediction that the net economic benefits from photovoltaics increase with increasing electricity demand and difference between photovoltaic generation and the demand. These results offer practical insight for implementing policies that balance renewable energy expansion with economic feasibility. By applying the insights on consumer economic benefits, policymakers could more accurately adjust the feed-in tariff to balance the cost of photovoltaic installation with the consumer burden.
Analysis of Natural Gas and Electricity Load Profiles for the Decarbonisation Strategy of a Commercial Area
The aim of the analysis is to create a database that maps the company-specific energy demand of a commercial area in hourly resolution. The focus is on determining the electricity and heat demand profile of companies in a commercial area using a combination of synthetic and real load profiles. These are necessary to map the heterogeneous energy requirements of industrial and commercial companies in a commercial area as realistically as possible. Due to the limited availability of real consumption data, 323 synthetic electricity and 125 gas load profiles from various studies were used. The comparison shows that synthetic profiles can only reflect the actual requirements of individual companies to a limited extent. However, as the temporal resolution becomes more aggregated and the number of companies increases, the synthetic data approximates the real consumption profile of the entire commercial area. The analysis carried out forms the basis for implementing an energy system model that examines the economic and technical synergies of local energy communities as part of decarbonisation strategies in commercial areas.
What Underlies the Poor Financial Performance of Electric Utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa?
This study investigates factors responsible for the poor performance of 67 electric utilities in 47 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region using descriptive data available from the World Bank, International Energy Agency, United States Energy Information Administration and national sources. Both cost-and revenue-side factors are found responsible for the poor financial performance of electric utilities in the region. More than two-thirds of vertically integrated utilities (VIUs) and electricity distributional utilities (EDUs) are unable to cover their operational and debt service costs by their revenues. Higher fuel costs (particularly oil), lower capacity factors, lower capital and labor productivity, high transmission and distribution (T & D) losses and leakage in electricity bill collections are found mainly responsible for the poor financial performance. On the other hand, consumers face higher electricity tariffs than in many countries around the world despite their much lower per capita income. The study also investigates how much the reduction of the T&D losses and elimination of the leakages in bill collection improve the financial performance of utilities and finds that out of 25 utilities currently operating in loss, 11 will have higher revenue than their operating costs due to T&D loss reduction and elimination of bill collection leakage. The findings indicate that policymakers in the SSA region should focus on a portfolio of policies, including switching away from expensive generation to emerging cheaper options, improving factor productivities, efficient institutions/governance, reduction of T&D losses, improvement of bill collection and tariff reforms. Policy priority, however, could vary across countries depending on the roles of various factors contributing to the poor financial performance.
The political institutional framework and renewable electricity: The impact of political institutional quality and regional authority
Accelerating the global transition to renewable electricity is critical for achieving climate targets, yet progress remains uneven across countries. This study examines the role of political institutional quality in shaping renewable electricity deployment. A review of recent literature identifies key conceptual and empirical gaps. Using a panel of 75 developed and emerging and developing countries from 1990 to 2018, we conduct an in-depth empirical analysis incorporating both composite and disaggregated measures of political institutional quality, alongside the moderating effect of regional political-administrative authority. We further compare the effects of institutional improvements across different development contexts. Our findings indicate that aggregate measures of institutional quality obscure heterogeneous effects among their components. In emerging and developing economies, corruption control is positively associated with renewable electricity deployment, particularly under low to moderate levels of regional authority. Conversely, higher bureaucratic quality may hinder deployment, potentially due to regulatory complexity. In developed countries, democratic accountability emerges as a key driver, especially in moderately decentralized systems. These results underscore the conditional and context-specific nature of institutional effects, suggesting that policy interventions must align institutional reforms with governance structures to effectively support renewable electricity expansion.
Climate Change-Induced Inflation Uncertainty in Temperate and Tropical Regions: Does Renewable Energy Offer a Solution?
This study examines the impact of key climate change indicators, including maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation, on inflation uncertainty across tropical and temperate regions. Using data from 53 countries between 1990 and 2020, the analysis applies Panel Structural Vector Autoregression to uncover regional differences. The findings reveal that maximum temperature significantly contributes to inflation uncertainty in tropical regions, while precipitation plays a major role in temperate regions. The study highlights the critical role of renewable energy in reducing climate-induced inflation volatility, particularly
in tropical areas. The results emphasize the need for region-specific monetary policies that focus on stabilizing food prices, promoting renewable energy in tropical regions, and strengthening infrastructure resilience and water management in temperate regions. Integrating renewable energy into economic strategies is essential for lowering inflation uncertainty and fostering sustainable growth in the face of climate challenges.
Assessing residents’ support for environmentally-friendly public transportation upgrades across Europe
The European Union (EU) has targeted the adoption of environmentally-friendly public transportation (EFPT) system as a strategic initiative to improve local ambient air quality, reduce road congestion, and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In support of these policy goals, this study assesses and compares public support for EFPT across 31 European nations. We use a Bayesian logit model with identified scale to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for local EFPT upgrades, utilizing data from 6,520 contingent valuation survey responses. Our findings indicate that WTP is primarily driven by expected improvements in public goods, such as air quality and GHG abatement, rather than private ridership benefits. On average, individuals across all nations demonstrate a WTP of € 7.48 per month. The consistently positive WTP distributions across all nations suggest implicit public support for EFPT at the EU-level.
Parental education and household cooking energy choice behaviour in Ghana
Despite efforts and advocacy in favour of transitioning to cleaner cooking fuels, traditional, highly polluting fuels remain dominant in many developing countries. This has prompted the need for further research and evidence to support policies to increase clean energy adoption and accelerate the energy transition agenda in these countries. This study investigates the role of social origin, proxied by parental education, in the choice of cooking fuel in Ghana. Parental education is treated exogenously; hence, linear probability estimation is employed to examine the relationship between parental education and energy choice. The study finds that parental education significantly positively affects clean cooking fuel adoption, with more potent effects found in fathers’ education than in mothers’ education. Heterogeneity analyses show the impact of dampening among lower-income groups and rural residents. With a noticeable shift in educational attainment trends in recent times, as more persons attain higher education, the findings suggest that policies that infuse the socialisation of children with clean energy and sustainability issues will accelerate the clean energy transition.
Abate or Exit? The Impact of Mercury Regulation on Coal Generator Retirements
Between 2001 and 2019, coal-fired electricity generation fell by more than half due to generator retirements and reduced usage of remaining generators. Concurrently, technological advancements made previously unrecoverable shale gas reserves economically viable, thus causing downward pressure on natural gas prices. This made them competitive to coal-fired generators that were aging and becoming less efficient. Moreover, states and the federal government began regulating mercury emissions from the electric power sector, since such pollution harms human health. Little is known about how environmental regulation affects firm exit decisions, or in this case, coal generator retirements. Employing a staggered adoption difference-in- differences identification strategy in a two-way fixed effects model as well as a stacked model, I find that state-level mercury regulation that occurred before compliance of the federal-level Mercury and Air Toxics Standards had an insignificant impact on coal-fired generator retirement. Instead, generator-level abatement
investments, power plant efficiency, and state-level natural gas capacity growth help to account for the impressive departure of coal-fired generators from the grid.