Assessing Ecobonus as Energy Poverty Mitigation Policy: Is Energy Efficiency for All?

Abstract

AbstractThe access to energy services could still represent a relevant problem in developed countries: an EU-wide survey concluded that in 2020, 8% of the EU population said that they were unable to keep their home adequately warm.When talking about energy poverty, its definition is a crucial element, also for its linkage with policy strategies. At EU level, a unique definition does not exist and the European Energy Poverty Observatory provides several consensual and expenditure-based direct indicators, as well as indirect ones. In Italy, the National Energy Strategy in 2017 has introduced a Low Income-High Cost measure, which has been employed also in the National Energy and Climate Plan.Several policies to mitigate energy poverty exist in Italy: some have social nature, such as electricity and gas bonuses, and other could provide a structural solution by means of energy efficiency investments, as the Ecobonus incentive scheme. The effectiveness of a well-consolidated energy efficiency policy in mitigating energy poverty is assessed, at the same time investigating its distributional implications. The access to this mechanism is analysed at regional level and for different intervention areas, in order to identify the potential existence of a regressive pattern.