Nudging and boosting for equity? Towards a behavioural economics of energy justice

With climate mitigation and energy transition impacts on vulnerable individuals becoming increasingly evident, justice considerations take on heightened relevance for energy governance. Yet, energy justice remains underinvestigated in relation to the potential of behavioural economics. Behavioural economics provides evidence that individuals exhibit systematic and predictable patterns of decision-making that depart from the assumptions of rational choice theory, thus giving policy-makers a richer model of human behaviour. Adopting such a model will impact energy justice outcomes, hence understanding potential dynamics is timely. How can policy-makers complement traditional energy poverty alleviation measures with behaviourally informed ones to enhance vulnerable individuals’ cognitive capacity? What implications does this carry for energy justice? Supportive choice architecture for individuals exposed to higher risks related to energy access and use must improve their outcomes, without shifting the responsibility for vulnerability to them, neglecting their intrinsic capabilities, or obscuring structural injustice. This article analytically illustrates whether and how behavioural economics can support individual behaviour and promote collective action, in combination with a policy shift to substantive claim-making processes, to address the unfair distribution of energy use burdens. Using nudging and boosting as tools for energy poverty alleviation, it discusses how behavioural economics can enhance energy justice.

DELLA VALLE Nives;  SAREEN Siddharth; 

2021-05-06

ELSEVIER

JRC125190

2214-6296 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221462962030164X?via%3Dihub,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125190,   

10.1016/j.erss.2020.101589 (online),