COMPETING AGENDAS - ENERGY POVERTY AND CARBON NEUTRALITY POLICY PATHWAYS

• Autor(a) principal: Mahoney, Katherine Elizabeth
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/172835
• topic: Energy Poverty; Climate Change; Energy Transition; Just Transition; Participatory Approaches; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia do Ambiente

Current policy pathways to carbon neutrality by 2050 are founded on ideals of a just transition which addresses the inequities inherent to existing energy systems. One such injustice is energy poverty, generally understood as a lack of sufficient access to energy services. Mitigating energy poverty has thus been integrated into broader carbon neutrality goals, where greater energy efficiency and the decarbonisation of the energy supply through the uptake of renewables are essential tools for tackling both energy poverty and for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, due to instances of extreme energy restriction and shifts in energy needs driven by climate change, uniform decreases in energy consumption are not always synergistic with the mitigation of energy poverty. Thus, synergies and trade-offs arise between the overarching agenda of tackling climate change, one of the central tools employed to mitigate it (the energy transition) and efforts to alleviate energy poverty. Assuming the label "competing agendas", this thesis explores the synergies, trade-offs and dynamic factors at play across the agendas of climate change, the energy transition and energy poverty. To explore the "competing agendas", two case studies are drawn upon the United Kingdom, which has a significant policy history with "fuel poverty", and Portugal, which presents high rates of renewable energy integration but is in the early phases of political engagement with energy poverty. An analysis of the UK policy context is provided. This policy background reveals the pros and cons of different energy poverty policy strategies in a setting which has been undertaking a tighter integration of energy efficiency and fuel poverty policies for some time. Themes of policy devolution and differences in the definitions and diagnoses of energy poverty are informative for the developing European context, where, ultimately, the policy approach taken affects who benefits and how from mitigatory policies. The UK policy setting is used as a foreground for a deeper exploration of the Portuguese case. The interlinkages of the three agendas in Portuguese policy are explored through a set of qualitative techniques. These techniques included policy analysis, thematic analysis of qualitative interviews and a Participatory Systems Mapping process. The combined results of these activities highlighted areas of stakeholder agreement and discord, where stakeholders generally felt the agendas should be treated holistically, presented divergent views regarding citizen agency and a lack of consensus on whether energy consumption would need to increase to mitigate energy poverty in Portugal. These areas of stakeholder discord are key future themes for the Portuguese decarbonisation strategy, where greater consensus fosters increased policy acceptance. The final chapter of the thesis reflects on the interlinkages of the climate change, energy transition and energy poverty agendas explored throughout the thesis, coming to the conclusion that these agendas are inherently connected and should be tackled holistically. This holistic approach must, however, account for the trade-offs occurring across the agendas. To this end, a means of articulating and prioritizing the "agenda conflicts" is presented. The thesis closes with a call for deeper explorations of citizen will and agency and tighter integration of the energy and social policy domains to promote inclusive policy solutions.