ZEW Energy Market Barometer - Thresholds for Assessing Energy Poverty
ResearchRising energy prices burden low income households. These households may have a tough time paying for their energy consumption in the near future. They will have to cut energy consumption or shift household expenditures. According to energy experts, energy costs reach a critical level when they eat up about ten per cent of the disposable household income. These are the findings of the biannual ZEW Energy Market Barometer, a survey among experts from the energy sector conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW).
A majority of 54 per cent of the experts surveyed by ZEW assess that total costs for electricity, gas, hot water and heating of up to ten per cent of the disposable income are financially troublesome for low income households. Some 46 per cent of the experts consider the critical threshold to be above ten per cent of the disposable income.
Recent data from 2011 provided by the Federal Statistical Office show that the lowest-income fifth of German households is already spending, on average, slightly more than ten per cent of their disposable incomes on energy. Electricity prices for private households have since risen above-average. The share of households above this threshold has thus likely increased. Nonetheless, 69 per cent of the experts surveyed for the ZEW Energy Market Barometer are convinced that no policy will be introduced within the coming twelve months to ease the energy cost burden on low income households.
"Establishing a general definition of energy poverty for German households is very difficult. Public debate and further research are required," says Florens Flues, environmental economist at ZEW. The ZEW Energy Market Barometer provides first opinions of experts from the energy sector.
For more information please contact
Prof. Andreas Löschel, Phone +49 621/1235-200, E-mail loeschel@zew.de
Dr. Florens Flues, Phone +49 621/1235-218, E-mail flues@zew.de
The ZEW Energy Market Barometer
The ZEW Energy Market Barometer is a twice-yearly survey of around 200 experts from academia and industry, including energy supply, trading, and service companies; regional suppliers; as well as electricity and green-power companies. The experts are asked about their expectations regarding short and medium term developments in national and international energy markets. The complete results of the current survey (undertaken in May 2013) will appear in the July/August 2013 edition of ZEWnews.