Energy consumption through a gender lens: exploring the effectiveness of social and mitigation policies

Energy policies and the twin transition are at risk of exacerbating gender gaps in time and income. Indeed, these inequalities may prevent the effectiveness of energy policies and impede the overall transition process. Addressing these inequalities in fundamental to ensure that energy policies align with sustainable development goals for a more equitable transition. Notably, within the literature there exists a gap concerning the interlinkage of gender dimension and energy use and consumption patterns, which should lead to new insights for policy-making process. To fill this void, this study proposes to apply a macrosimulation dynamic integrated assessment model, called EUROGREEN, to evaluate the effectiveness of energy policies and the related effects on income and time use distributions. Moreover, we explore how different social policies, especially the ones designed to mitigate gender-based income inequalities and time-use disparities, can act as countermeasures to potential negative effects and contemporaneously foster the transition process. This study involves using micro-data from ISTAT (Italian National Institutes of Statistics) to measure and evaluate the effects of mitigation policies on time use and income disparities, with special emphasis on gender-specific habits in energy consumption and differentiated time pressure. By understanding these dynamics, the main goal is to identify a selection of policies that can simultaneously achieve the dual goals of promoting both energy transition and reducing gender gaps, in time and income. Our research would like to contribute to the limited existing literature by examining the interplay between social norms related to gender dynamics and the energy transition. We emphasize the need for holistic studies to address socio-economic disparities for a more equitable development.