A lakossági energiafelhasználás csökkentése a humán fejlettség megtartásával: a középosztály előtt álló kihívások

Fit for 55 calls for an expansion of the Emissions Trading Scheme and a reform of the Energy Tax Directive that will lead to higher energy prices. The goal is to reduce household energy consumption and achieve the 2030 energy and climate targets. Our study attempts to answer the question of whether this can be achieved without jeopardizing human development in all EU member states. We use the Gini coefficient, Hoover index, and rank correlation coefficients to examine differences in household energy consumption across Member States, and a path model to analyze the direct and indirect relationship between these variables and human development. Our results show significant, but decreasing over time, spatial differences in household energy consumption among the countries and country groups studied. The path analysis reveals an important link: household energy use has a significant direct (and independent) impact on human development, not only indirectly through other socio-economic-environmental variables. In other words, until the two indicators are decoupled, households in seven Member States will have to increase their energy consumption in order not only to maintain but also to raise the level of human development achieved and to achieve social and economic convergence in the European Union.