scholarly journals Just Transitions, Poverty and Energy Consumption: Personal Carbon Accounts and Households in Poverty

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5953
Author(s):  
Martin Burgess ◽  
Mark Whitehead

Complex relations exist between issues of poverty, responsibility and just transitions toward reduced household energy use. One proposed transitional instrument is Personal Carbon Accounts (PCAs) which provide equal per capita carbon allowances and increase costs for additional usage. Previously modelled PCAs show that a third of households in poverty must curtail usage or pay more for some of their fuel, hitherto making PCAs ethically and politically untenable. Using the UK’s “Understanding Society” database, average per capita carbon allowances and—using occupancy data—the hypothetical allowance each household would receive within a PCA scheme are calculated. Occupancy levels, equivalised incomes and conversion of expenditure to carbon emissions permit analysis of households emitting more or less carbon compared to their allocation. We demonstrate that households emitting greater than average levels of CO2 do so mainly for lifestyle reasons, irrespective of income. Any calculation of legitimate social and environmental cost of CO2, even for households in poverty, must consider questions of choice and capacity to act. This suggests that even if certain low income, high emitting households are disadvantaged by the transition associated with personal carbon allowances this may still be a just transition.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles Roque

Examining occupant's household energy use is a crucial step in achieving significant reductions in energy consumption. The purpose of this thesis is to collect information on ownership of appliances and electronics to evaluate their use, energy consumption, and behaviour with respect to energy in a Toronto high-rise multi-unit residential building (MURB). In this thesis, a survey was developed and implemented in a Toronto high-rise MURB. The survey data, energy consumption data from October 2010 to September 2012, and weather conditions were analyzed and used to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) model. The detailed analysis of survey data resulted in the development of relationships between occupant's demographics and energy consumption. By creating an ANN model, results showed that the implementation of the survey may have reduced occupant's energy consumption in the high-rise MURB.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuxin Mao ◽  
Sha Qiu ◽  
Tao Li ◽  
Mingfang Tang ◽  
Hongbing Deng ◽  
...  

In the context of general household energy transition, identifying different household energy consumption patterns is of great significance for the formulation of refined energy conservation and emission reduction policies. For historical reasons, the households of ethnic minorities in China tend to face more severe energy poverty problems. In this study, we proposed the concept and research method of characteristic energy, a new method to depict household energy use pattern. Combined with the diversity analysis, the energy use pattern of Tujia and Miao rural households in Chongqing, China, were studied. Households in research area were clustered into four groups with different characteristic energy sources: firewood, electricity, coal and gasoline, representing four types of household energy use pattern. The main impact factors of rural household energy use pattern are electrical appliances and amount of pig raising, indicating that household production and lifestyle play a decisive role in household energy use patterns. In addition, the research depicts the energy consumption characteristics of rural households with different incomes, ethnic groups and in different regions. The study puts forward corresponding energy saving countermeasures for different energy use pattern, helps to identify the heterogeneity of rural household energy use and promote the formulation of refined regional energy conservation and emission reduction policies.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2888 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linlin Zhao ◽  
Zhansheng Liu ◽  
Jasper Mbachu

Over the last two decades, the residential building sector has been one of the largest energy consumption sectors in New Zealand. The relationship between that sector and household energy consumption should be carefully studied in order to optimize the energy consumption structure and satisfy energy demands. Researchers have made efforts in this field; however, few have concentrated on the association between household energy use and the cost of residential buildings. This study examined the correlation between household energy use and residential building cost. Analysis of the data indicates that they are significantly correlated. Hence, this study proposes time series methods, including the exponential smoothing method and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model for forecasting residential building costs of five categories of residential buildings (one-storey house, two-storey house, townhouse, residential apartment and retirement village building) in New Zealand. Moreover, the artificial neutral networks (ANNs) model was used to forecast the future usage of three types of household energy (electricity, gas and petrol) using the residential building costs. The t-test was used to validate the effectiveness of the obtained ANN models. The results indicate that the ANN models can generate acceptable forecasts. The primary contributions of this paper are twofold: (1) Identify the close correlation between household energy use and residential building costs; (2) provide a new clue for optimizing energy management.


2012 ◽  
Vol 573-574 ◽  
pp. 890-896
Author(s):  
Yong Qiao

Low-carbon industries and people's lives are interrelated. A survey was conducted with a population sample of 100 households. This paper compared the rural and urban households’ energy consumption. It was found that the household energy-use is complex. The urban households’ energy use has a high-carbon tendency. The rural households’ energy consumption is relatively low-carbon, but their energy consumption behaviors are gradually being abandoned. Whether the consumer chooses a low-carbon lifestyle or not, it does not relate to his idea but to the industries. With the economic level improving, all households may choose electricity only. If the Power industry is not low carbon, the life of people can't be low carbon. The article focuses on the energy industry and concerns that low-carbon life is driven by low-carbon industries.


2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Aitken

This paper details and contrasts the patterns of household energy consumption from three sample groups across three provinces in South Africa. The three samples were selected from unelectrified areas in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, North West and the Eastern Cape. The paper shows the range of energy sources and carriers as well as the most prominent and common applications. Understand-ing patterns of household energy consumption and expenditure, as well as the energy burden of rural households can be used to shape and inform ener-gy interventions within these regions for both public and private sector concerns.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 03001
Author(s):  
Zhonglin Sheng ◽  
Kan Gu ◽  
Weida He

This paper will be based on the existing literature and research methods, with the 1980 to 2014 China’s residential carbon emissions estimates. This paper mainly examines the changes in total residential carbon emissions and per capita carbon emissions, energy consumption per unit of household energy consumption, carbon emissions and energy composition of the above-mentioned analysis of urban and rural compared with the international comparison.


2017 ◽  
Vol 141 ◽  
pp. 128-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Ye ◽  
Qun Ren ◽  
Xinyue Hu ◽  
Tao Lin ◽  
Lilai Xu ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miles Roque

Examining occupant's household energy use is a crucial step in achieving significant reductions in energy consumption. The purpose of this thesis is to collect information on ownership of appliances and electronics to evaluate their use, energy consumption, and behaviour with respect to energy in a Toronto high-rise multi-unit residential building (MURB). In this thesis, a survey was developed and implemented in a Toronto high-rise MURB. The survey data, energy consumption data from October 2010 to September 2012, and weather conditions were analyzed and used to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) model. The detailed analysis of survey data resulted in the development of relationships between occupant's demographics and energy consumption. By creating an ANN model, results showed that the implementation of the survey may have reduced occupant's energy consumption in the high-rise MURB.


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