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-Abstract: The call for a decent life for all within planetary limits poses a dual challenge: Provide all people with the essential resources needed to live well and, collectively, to not exceed the source and sink capacity of the biosphere to sustain human societies. In this paper, we examine the corridor of possible distributions of household energy and carbon footprints for the populations of 28 European countries that satisfy both minimum energy requirements for a decent living and maximum supply of decarbonised energy to achieve the 1.5°C target in 2050. We constructed household energy and carbon footprints for harmonized European expenditure deciles in 2015 by combining data from national Household Budget Surveys (HBS) provided by EUROSTAT, with the Environmentally-Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) model EXIOBASE. Estimates for a range of minimum energy requirements for a decent life, as well as estimates for the maximum available energy supply, were taken from the 1.5°C scenario literature. We found a top decile to bottom decile ratio of 7.2 for expenditure, 3.5 for energy and 2.6 for carbon, largely attributable to inefficient energy and heating technologies in the four bottom deciles that are predominantly located in Eastern European countries. Adopting best technology in all European deciles would save 19 EJ per year and equalize expenditure, energy and carbon inequality. At those inequality levels, the dual goal can only be achieved through CCS deployment, large and fast efficiency improvements, plus extremely low minimum energy requirements of 27 GJ per adult equivalent (as compared to currently 130 GJ/ae in the lowest decile). When around 50 GJ/ae minimum energy requirements for a decent living and no CCS deployment is assumed, the mathematical possible inequality to also achieve the 1.5°C target becomes practically zero. We conclude that for Europe and the eurozone, combining the goals of providing enough energy for a decent living and achieving the Paris agreement poses an immense and widely underestimated challenge, one which will likely require substantial monetary and fiscal leeway.
+Abstract: The call for a decent life for all within planetary limits poses a dual challenge: Provide all people with the essential resources needed to live well and, collectively, not exceed the source and sink capacity of the biosphere to sustain human societies. We explore for 28 European countries the corridor of possible distributions of household energy and carbon footprints that meet the minimum energy requirements for a decent life, but do not exceed the maximum energy supply compatible with achieving the 1.5°C target in 2050. We estimated household energy and carbon footprints for harmonized European expenditure deciles in 2015 by combining data from national Household Budget Surveys (HBS) provided by EUROSTAT, with the Environmentally-Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) model EXIOBASE. Estimates for a range of minimum energy requirements for a decent life, as well as estimates for the maximum available energy supply, were taken from the 1.5°C scenario literature. We found top-to-bottom decile ratios (10:10) of 7.2 for expenditure, 3.5 for energy and 2.6 for carbon. The lower footprint ratios can be attributed to the fact that higher consumption in the top deciles is offset by very inefficient energy and heating technologies, especially in the four lowest deciles (mostly Eastern Europe). Adopting best technology across all European expenditure deciles would save 19 EJ per year and align energy and carbon footprint inequality with expenditure inequality. At those inequality levels, the dual goal can only be achieved through CCS deployment, large and fast efficiency improvements, plus extremely low minimum energy requirements of 27 GJ per adult equivalent (as compared to currently 130 GJ/ae in the lowest decile). When around 50 GJ/ae minimum energy requirements for a decent life and no CCS deployment is assumed, the mathematical possible inequality to also achieve the 1.5°C target becomes practically zero. We conclude that for Europe and the eurozone, combining the goals of providing enough energy for a decent life and achieving the Paris agreement poses an immense and widely underestimated challenge, one which will likely require substantial monetary and fiscal leeway.
 
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