Abstract
This paper analyses the gross inland energy consumption (EC) in the European Union countries (EU-15) over the period 2005-2014. The standard tools in the measurement of income inequality such as Lorenz curves, Gini index, Generalized Entropy indices and Atkinson ones are applied. Our empirical results, obtained through the decomposition of the generalized entropy indices, confirm that there are a small inward shift in the corresponding Lorenz curves, that the inequality distribution of EC across the EU-15 countries has decreased (the Gini coefficient falls from 44,27% in 2005 to 42,16% in 2014) and there are huge differences among the countries’ clusters: Mediterranean, Continental, Nordic and Anglo-Saxon. This paper makes a good contribution to knowledge since it uses a very up-to-dated database (Eurostat) and fills a gap in the literature.
Highlights
One of the main important objectives of the European Union (EU) is focused on climate change and energy efficiency
The EU’s Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, identifies three key targets based on climate change and energy sustainability, the so-called ‘20-20-20’ targets (7224/1/07 REV 1: Presidency Conclusions of the European Council of 8/9 March 2007): 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) taking in account the 1990 levels; 20% share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable energy resources; and 20% improvement in energy efficiency on the EU primary energy consumption
It is important to point out that inequality decreased over the period 2005-2014, energy consumption (EC) was much higher at the bottom of the distribution in 2005 than in 2014
Summary
One of the main important objectives of the European Union (EU) is focused on climate change and energy efficiency. We have combined methodological issues based on the standard tools in the measurement of income inequality These techniques have been applied to energy economics (Groot, 2010), specially to the inequality measurement of carbon emissions to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time it is applied to gross inland energy consumption in the EU-15 countries for period 2005-2014. The main objectives of this paper are to provide an assessment of gross inland energy consumption inequality in EU through different measures over the period 2005-2014 and to rank the four up-referred different clusters of EU countries based on regionalization criteria and decompose changes in the inequality groups (between and within-group components). The final section concludes summarizing the main findings and presenting some recommendations for policymakers
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