Alessia Casamassima (p), Andrea Morone, Jordi Perdiguero Garcìa

Jordi Perdiguero

The aim of this work is to investigate the energy misperception of different sources among the “Next Generation” group. The analysis is carried out in Italy and the data were obtained through an internet-based survey, administered via Instagram for capturing the Next Generation’s perception of the national energy mix. We found that younger have more misperceptions and one of the possible explanations could be that are more negatively affected by media and social media, or public opinion in general. Another motivation could be that the younger generation considers sustainability important and therefore tend to over-perceive renewable energy sources.

Sara Miranda (p), Rosa Duarte Pac, Cristina Sarasa Fernández

Alessia Casamassima

Nowadays, the relevance of environmental attitudes is highlighted by international commitments. One example of that is the European Green Deal. The Green Deal notifies the significance of interesting topics such as European mobility, household consumption, environmental impacts, and energy poverty, among others.
It is known that environmental commitments have revealed the importance of taking action against the pollution created not only by enterprises but also by final demand, especially, by households. In this line, the literature has shown the differences between income groups in their consumption patterns and environmental impacts. The study of the relationship between consumption patterns and environmental attitudes is quite important due to the great aid that could be to international commitments to develop adequate policies to reduce environmental impacts, and, in this way, achieve their ambitious goals.
In all this context, using a set of different environmental and social surveys, and developing a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model for European households for 2015, we want to assess the relationship between environmental attitudes and consumption patterns. Evaluating this relationship, we want to go further and, assess, different simulations concerning European mobility, food consumption patterns, the use of efficient energy devices, the European energy poverty, among others. In this way, some of our results are the following. First, the affordability of households determines, in a significant way, their consumption patterns. Also, we find that a reduction in private transport will contribute to a significant reduction of greenhouse emissions, especially, for those from high-income groups. Also, a decrease in meat consumption will aid to reduce the amount of methane in the atmosphere.

Daniel Rojas Peña (p), Consolación Quintana-Rojo, Miguel Ángel Tarancón Morán

Sara Miranda

Social acceptance, defined as the active or passive approval by the public of a certain policy, is one of the most significant constraining factors in achieving government targets to increase the share of renewable energy. This study analyses 362 articles and reviews that have investigated the social acceptance of renewable energies, to obtain those whose geographical scope is the European Union or one of its member countries (73 documents). A bibliometric analysis and a critical appraisal were performed. The results show that all documents can be clustered into three groups, labelled as: Energy Planning (EP), Renewable Energy Driver (RED) and Social Acceptance (SA). The typology that enjoys the greatest notoriety in Europe is the analysis of Social Acceptance (SA) itself (65.75% of the documents), predominantly of renewable energies in general, without studying one in particular (47.37% of the documents). Within Europe, the countries most studied by the literature are Germany, Spain and Greece, which together account for 54.7% of the total. Although in Europe the most commonly used study methodology is of a qualitative nature (case study), quantitative studies are predominant. It has been found that the analysis of social acceptance is a relatively recent phenomenon (with the first peak of papers in 2016) and that 10 journals, whose predominant subject area is "Energy" and "Environmental Science" accumulate 72.60% of the papers published on this topic. Finally, this study performs an intensive review of those 32 documents with a European geographical scope that, through quantitative methodologies, quantify Social Acceptance (SA), identifying its determinants. These papers are based on various interview and questionnaire analysis techniques, and identify age, education level and salary as the main determinants of the approval of technologies that use renewable energy sources.

María J. Ruiz-Fuensanta (p), María Jesús Gutiérrez Pedrero (p), Miguel Ángel Tarancón Morán

Daniel Rojas Peña

Renewable energies have undergone a notable expansion thanks to technological progress which has allowed a significant reduction in both the cost of installation and the cost of generating electricity from these green energies. This expansion has been encouraged by the urgent need to replace fossil fuels to curb the problems caused by pollution and climate change, as well as to guarantee energy supply.
Even though there is now a broad consensus on the convenience of making this energy transition towards a decarbonised model, the expansion of green energies is encountering the rejection of some sectors of the local community in which renewable energy plants are installed, giving rise to what is known in academic literature as the NIMBY (not in my back yard) effect. This opposition has been increasing as renewable energy farms have proliferated as part of national policies that set ambitious targets for investment in clean energy sources. For example, the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) approved by the Spanish government for the period 2021-2030 sets the goal of reaching 74% of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030.
Although these objectives are defined at state level, the different territorial administrations (Autonomous Communities and municipalities) play an important role in the implementation of the PNIEC. In Spain, the Autonomous Communities are responsible for authorising electricity installations that are in their territory and do not have effects outside it, a circumstance that generally affects renewable energy installations which, by their very nature, tend to have an intra-regional scope. For their part, municipalities, which have important urban and land-use planning powers, are also a key player in the expansion of renewable energies. In short, the development of green energies depends on the decisions taken at the different territorial levels of government; decisions which, in turn, are conditioned by the specific circumstances of each territory.
There is also a risk that this variety of actors involved, and the confluence of different interests (environmental, economic, social, and political) could lead to a disorderly expansion of investment in renewables.
This paper aims to analyse the determinants of the expansion of renewable energies in Spain, considering the dual municipal and regional dimension. The combination of these two territorial spheres will provide a more accurate picture of the drivers and barriers to investment in clean energy sources.
To this end, a multilevel model is estimated using information from different statistical sources.

Jordi Perdiguero (p), Juan Luis Jiménez, José Manuel Cazorla-Artiles

Oum El Hanae El Kraid

The increase in international petroleum prices generated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of the main causes of inflation, especially in Europe. In order to contain it, 13 European countries have introduced tax reductions or subsidies so as to reduce the final diesel and gasoline 95 prices paid by consumers. However, these markets have shown both inelastic demand and concentrated markets which affect pass-through. Using weekly data for 24 European countries between January and May, 2022, this paper analyzes the effect of these measures on diesel and gasoline 95 prices. The difference-in-difference estimator shows a high degree of heterogeneity between them, although on average approximately 70 percent of the tax reductions are transferred. Therefore, these measures are: inefficient, as only a small part has an impact on the final price paid by consumers; regressive (as they subsidize the richest); do not fight climate change, and finance Russia as a petrol exporting country.