Oswald, Y., Owen, A. & Steinberger, J.K. Large inequality in international and intranational energy footprints between income groups and across consumption categories. Nat Energy 5, 231–239 (2020)

Objective:

• Build an energy and expenditure extended input-output model that distinguishes between income groups of households

Case:

• 86 countries

Methodology:

• Power law
• Leontief matrix and energy consumption for households
• Inequality: Lorenz and Gini

Data Source

• GTAP 9
• Global consumption data: World Bank (BRICS states), Eurostat household budget surveys
• Final energy consumption: IEA
• International standard Industrial classification of economic activities revision
• Income per capita growth: OECD (Future)

Findings:

• Energy footprint scale sublinearly with expenditure
• Expenditure at higher levels becomes slightly less energy intense

• Energy footprints vary more widely in their inequality than expenditure does
• The pattern is even more pronounced when comparing income inequality and energy inequality

• Top 10% consume ~39% of total final energy
• In land transport, the bottom 50% receive a bit more than 10% of the energy used and in air transport they make use of less than 5%
• The top 10% use ~45% of the energy for land transport and around 75% for air transport

Coding Reference:

• Matlab: Not applicable