Abstract

The paper evaluates the distributional implications on Italian households of energy demand shocks induced by future global warming. We describe the direct impacts as well as the higher-order effects induced by general equilibrium adjustments in prices. Results show that climate change impacts on energy demand are regressive. While expenditure for heating fuels declines the most among poor people (progressive), electricity expenditure goes up relatively more within the first deciles of the expenditure distribution (regressive). The number of energy poors, as well as the intensity of energy poverty, goes down, the more so with higher-order adjustments, combining a reduction in heating fuel poors and poverty intensity with an increase in electricity poors and poverty severity, and masking significant regional heterogeneity