Research Data Leeds Repository

Dataset associated with "Characterising the energy use of disabled people in the European Union towards inclusion in the energy transition"

Citation

Ivanova, Diana and Middlemiss, Lucie (2021) Dataset associated with "Characterising the energy use of disabled people in the European Union towards inclusion in the energy transition". University of Leeds. [Dataset] https://doi.org/10.5518/1048

Dataset description

This dataset contains household-level energy footprint (energy use) calculations based on consumption data from the Household Budget Surveys (HBS) disseminated by Eurostat, wave 2010. The dataset contains energy footprints (total and by consumption category) and categorical variables on poverty, energy poverty and disability, all of which generated by the authors. The dataset also contains household IDs, country codes and household weights generated by Eurostat and corresponding to the HBSs. The household and country ID variables are included in order to allow for households to be identifiable by users of the HBS dataset disseminated by Eurostat. For access to other variables in the HBSs (e.g. household size, income, population density etc.), which have been used in the statistical analysis, please seek microdata access through the official Eurostat portal. Designing environmental policy to take account of social difference is increasingly recognised as essential to address both effectiveness and justice concerns. To date there is limited research on the experiences of disabled people in the environmental literature, amounting to a failure to recognise this substantial constituency. Here we compare disabled households’ embodied energy use, income, risk of poverty and energy poverty, and other socio-demographics to other households in Europe. We find that households that include an economically inactive disabled person earn less and consume 10% less energy than other households, as well as being more likely to experience energy poverty. Disabled households have lower consumption than other households in most categories, with the exception of basic consumption such as food, energy at home (gas and electricity), water and waste services: in effect they have less, and sometimes inadequate access to resources. We conclude that more attention should be paid to disabled households needs to ensure a just energy transition.

Keywords:

energy use, consumption, disability, disabled people, energy poverty

Divisions:

Faculty of Environment > School of Earth and Environment

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