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ToolsBurlinson, Andrew, Davillas, Apostolos and Giulietti, Monica (2025) Socioeconomic inequality in low-carbon technology adoption. Energy Economics, 143. pp. 1-16. ISSN 0140-9883
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Abstract
The widespread adoption of low-carbon technologies (LCTs) by residential consumers is a cornerstone of net zero targets worldwide; however, LCT adoption may not be equally distributed across socioeconomic groups. Our paper contributes to the related literature by exploring socioeconomic inequality in LCT adoption and its underlying sources. We exploit nationally representative longitudinal data on the adoption of three key LCTs (solar photovoltaics, solar water heating, and electric vehicles) in the UK. We investigate the aggregate role of predetermined socioeconomic factors in determining socioeconomic inequalities in LCT adoption. We further contribute to the literature by employing Shapley-decomposition techniques to reveal the relative contribution of each individual socioeconomic factor to the total estimated socioeconomic inequality. Our results suggest that socioeconomic inequalities in LCT adoption have fallen over the last decade but remain prevalent, non-negligible in magnitude and highly statistically significant. Our analysis of longitudinal LCT adoption patterns shows that those consumers who have recently adopted LCTs, are contributing to the reduction in the observed socioeconomic inequalities over time. Policies targeting groups with the most disadvantaged socioeconomic background are crucial in order to mitigate the observed inequalities, potentially hindering a more rapid low-carbon transition.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | Acknowledgments We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous version of the manuscript which have helped us to produce a much improved article. The research was undertaken as part of the UK Energy Research Centre research programme. The data used in this research work has been obtained from the Understanding Society survey. Understanding Society is an initiative funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and various Government Departments, with scientific leadership by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, and survey delivery by NatCen Social Research and Kantar Public. The research data are distributed by the UK Data Service. The funders, data creators and UK Data Service have no responsibility for the contents of this paper. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | inequality,low carbon technologies,renewable resources,technology adoption,economics and econometrics,general energy,sdg 7 - affordable and clean energy ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 19 May 2026 13:21 |
| Last Modified: | 19 May 2026 13:21 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103101 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.eneco.2025.108244 |
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