Recently, there has been an increasing focus on the wider impacts of energy efficiency policy - beyond reducing costs and carbon emissions. Amongst these impacts is the effect of energy efficiency (EE) policies on income distribution - do they help to reduce or widen the difference in incomes across the region’s population; that is, are they progressive or regressive within the region they are implemented?It is generally recognised that household income has an effect on how consumers use energy and how citizens respond to energy policy. For example, it is hypothesised that lower income groups are generally less able to access the benefits of EE, partly as a result of their lower ability to fund up-front costs of measures. This hypothesis has been tested by researchers for some climate change and EE policies using a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches, producing mixed results. Whilst some studies provide evidence to support the hypothesis, others have found evidence that EE policies focussed on lower income residents have reduced income inequality for targeted households, and some studies suggest that in some countries EE appliances do not in practice incur higher up-front costs and so may not incur distributional impacts.However, for product policy specifically (including minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), labels, grants), there appears to be a paucity of research using data to evaluate the impacts on income distribution. The few investigations of such impact that have been found tend to be theoretical and focus on implied consumer discount rates and MEPS.This paper synthesises the literature on the distributional impact of climate and EE policies. It examines the context for product policy, before examining the literature for product policy specifically. Based on this review, some initial product policy implications will be drawn. Finally, it assesses potential data sources that would enable additional research to better understanding distributional impacts of product policy.
展开▼
