In the Name of Energy Efficiency : Justice and energy poverty in the energy transition of Swedish housing

Abstract: The energy transition of housing is accelerating in parallel with economic inequality reaching historically high levels. There is thus an opportunity to reduce inequalities in living conditions, but also a risk that the costs of the transition are unequally distributed and aggravate existing inequalities. In order to seize the opportunity for a just transition, and in tandem enable a meaningful introduction of energy poverty to the Swedish political agenda, the aim of the presented thesis is to explore how the energy transition of Swedish housing is affecting social justice and vulnerability to energy poverty. This is done by novel conceptualisations, that draw on existing theory particularly relevant for the current context, of what a just energy transition of Swedish housing entails, and how energy poverty can be understood in the Swedish context; but also by adding empirical rigour to the discussion in analysing how costs and burdens of the transition have been shared between income groups, and how vulnerabilities to energy poverty are distributed among households. Overall, the findings show that the strong focus on energy efficiency in transition policy tends to structurally burden low-income residents. This could be seen in how low-income residents, who were shown to have low per capita energy use for housing, had carried a disproportionate cost burden for energy retrofitting over the past years; in how new policy imposing cold rent in the worst-performing buildings predominantly affected low-income households, and consequently elevated the risk for energy poverty in an already vulnerable part of the housing stock; and in how flexible energy use is consistently assumed to be an ability equally distributed across society. By incorporating flexibility in the conceptualisation of energy poverty, it could be determined what characteristics of a household contribute to their ability to dodge the current energy price peaks, but also who are most likely to be winners and losers in future energy systems increasingly reliant on demand-side flexibility. In conclusion, the findings in this thesis show that injustices have occurred in the energy transition over the past decade; that these injustices are structural and not coincidental; and that there are risks of injustices continuing to occur and inequality being built into future energy systems. By disclosing the implications of past decisions, the presented thesis provides credible accounts of the need for increased integration of social perspectives in energy policy, and offers practical support for more just pathways ahead. As such, it challenges dominating transition narratives that, in the name of energy efficiency, structurally have put low-income households at the frontline of the energy transition of Swedish housing.