Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Long-term decarbonization impacts on residential energy security across income groups and US states

Journal Article · · Environmental Research Letters
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), College Park, MD (United States)
  2. Peking University, Beijing (China)
  3. BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change, Leioa (Spain)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The impact of a transition to a net-zero economy on the residential energy sector across diverse income groups in the US remains uncertain. Here, we employ an integrated human-Earth system model, incorporating an expanded set of ten income groups in the residential energy sector, to examine the distributional impacts of long-term decarbonization scenarios on residential energy security at the state level through 2050. We use multiple metrics of energy security, including energy burden, energy satiation gap, and the distribution of energy service across income groups. Our findings show that the net-zero decarbonization scenarios affect residential energy security differently across income groups, with low-to-mid-income groups experiencing larger negative impacts on the dimensions studied here. Comparatively, climate change impact on residential energy security is minor through 2050 based on our model outcomes. Specifically, the net-zero decarbonization scenarios lead to increased energy burden across all income groups and states in 2050, where the lowest (highest) income group in each state shows an average of 0.6 (0.2) percentage point increase in energy burden, relative to the business-as-usual in 2050. The distribution of energy service consumption across income groups is also slightly more skewed under these scenarios. As incomes grow across all deciles in the future, residential energy security generally improves through 2050. Targeted interventions could mitigate the disproportionate impacts that some groups could incur under a transition to a net-zero economy.
Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Natural Science Foundation of China; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2560933
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2551915
OSTI ID: 2574395
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--204574
Journal Information:
Environmental Research Letters, Journal Name: Environmental Research Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 20; ISSN 1748-9326
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (25)

Modelling energy technologies in a competitive market journal April 1993
Exploring equality and sustainability trade-offs of energy transition outcomes in the United States in 2050 journal August 2024
State-by-state energy-water-land-health impacts of the US net-zero emissions goal journal December 2023
Equity implications of net-zero emissions: A multi-model analysis of energy expenditures across income classes under economy-wide deep decarbonization policies journal December 2024
Labor pathways to achieve net-zero emissions in the United States by mid-century journal June 2023
The energy system transformation needed to achieve the US long-term strategy journal July 2022
Carbon‐Neutral Pathways for the United States journal January 2021
21st Century Scenario Forcing Increases More for CMIP6 Than CMIP5 Models journal March 2023
Unveiling hidden energy poverty using the energy equity gap journal May 2022
Decarbonization will lead to more equitable air quality in California journal September 2022
Air pollution disparities and equality assessments of US national decarbonization strategies journal December 2022
Recognition of and response to energy poverty in the United States journal March 2020
Continental United States climate projections based on thermodynamic modification of historical weather journal September 2023
High-ambition climate action in all sectors can achieve a 65% greenhouse gas emissions reduction in the United States by 2035 journal July 2024
A community-based approach to low-income residential energy efficiency participation barriers journal February 2016
Implications of different income distributions for future residential energy demand in the U.S. journal January 2022
Non-parametric projections of the net-income distribution for all U.S. states for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways journal October 2023
Residential energy demand, emissions, and expenditures at regional and income-decile level for alternative futures journal July 2024
Homogeneous Middles vs. Heterogeneous Tails, and the End of the ‘Inverted-U’: It's All About the Share of the Rich: It's All About the Share of the Rich journal January 2011
Achieving net‐zero emissions targets: An analysis of long‐term scenarios using an integrated assessment model journal February 2023
Actions for reducing US emissions at least 50% by 2030 journal May 2022
helios: An R package to process heating and cooling degrees for GCAM journal February 2024
GCAM v5.1: representing the linkages between energy, water, land, climate, and economic systems journal January 2019
GCAM-USA v5.3_water_dispatch: integrated modeling of subnational US energy, water, and land systems within a global framework journal March 2022
The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project (ScenarioMIP) for CMIP6 journal January 2016

Similar Records

Related Subjects

decarbonization
distributional impacts
energy burden
energy service Palma ratio
income groups
residential energy security
satiation gap