Decarbonization of the Belgian residential buildings sector: how to deal with energy poverty?

Details

Supervisors

Van Steenberghe, Vincent

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences économiques, orientation générale

Abstract

Climate change has become one of this Millennium’s greatest challenges. The decarbonization of the residential buildings sector is one of the actions allowing to mitigate climate change. However, it directly affects households. Hence, acceptability of new policies is ambiguous. Decarbonizing the Belgian residential sector requires two main levers. Firstly, performing mass renovation of buildings through insulation. Secondly, investing in energy efficient carbon-free heating systems. In order to accelerate decarbonization, policymakers can also implement a carbon tax. All of the above can have distributional impacts on households and in turn, increase energy poverty. In Belgium, energy poverty is an issue that concerns around 15% of the population. Consequently, it is important to design and implement complementary policies that allow to prevent an intensification of the energy poverty issue in the specific context of decarbonization. Based on data retrieved from the Belgian Households Budget Survey 2016, this thesis analyzes which policies containing energy poverty would fit best to the Belgian residential buildings sector. This analysis permits to provide different policy recommendations for federal and regional governments.