Dr. Maria Rosaria Seminara (p), Dr. Alessandro Agostini, Dr. Giuseppe Pellegrini Masini (p), PhD Student Alessia Piccolo

This paper examines whether EU biomethane targets function as spatially neutral acceleration instruments or whether their effects are conditioned by territorially embedded capability structures, potentially reinforcing pre-existing asymmetries across Member States. Under REPowerEU and the revised Renewable Energy Directive, biomethane has been assigned a strategic role in supporting decarbonisation and reducing fossil fuel dependency, with an EU-wide production target of 35 bcm by 2030. While target-based governance is commonly viewed as a mechanism for reducing uncertainty and mobilising investment, transition processes unfold within uneven institutional and economic geographies, raising questions about their territorial distributive effects.
Drawing on regional development and innovation systems literature, we conceptualise territorial capability structures as systemic configurations shaping the capacity of territories to mobilise and scale transition technologies. These include sectoral composition and related variety, institutional quality, innovation and absorptive capacity, and energy-system maturity. We introduce the concept of capability-contingent scaling, defined as the conditional ability of territories to translate uniform acceleration policies into technological deployment depending on their capability endowments.
Empirically, we construct a country-level panel dataset for the EU-27 covering 2015–2023 and estimate dynamic fixed-effects models linking biomethane production to territorial capability indicators, including interactions with a post-REPowerEU dummy capturing policy intensification. Additional dispersion analyses examine whether cross-country inequality in biomethane production evolves in the post-policy period.
By integrating acceleration governance with territorial capability theory, the paper advances a spatially sensitive framework for analysing EU-wide quantitative targets and their implications for uneven technological scaling.

Dr. Lina Volodzkiene (p), Professor, PhD Tomas Balezentis

The transition toward a climate-neutral society is increasingly framed as a question of fairness and inclusion, yet formal commitments to gender equality do not automatically ensure equal experiences of climate governance in everyday life. While policy frameworks often assume that equal legal rights and participation opportunities are sufficient for inclusive climate action, lived realities are shaped by care responsibilities, housing affordability, energy vulnerability, and broader socio-economic pressures. Gender equality must therefore be understood alongside the structural conditions that influence both perceptions of inequality and the practical capacity to engage in climate-related behaviour. This study examines how structural and socio-economic factors shape gendered perceptions of inequality, experiences of energy vulnerability, and climate-related behavioural intentions within a single integrated framework.
The analysis is based on original survey data collected at the end of 2025 from a representative sample of Lithuania’s adult population using probabilistic sampling to ensure proportional representation by gender, age, and place of residence. The dataset includes perception-based and behavioural indicators related to labour market equality, unpaid care constraints, participation in climate decision-making, energy limitation and expenditure patterns, and willingness to adopt climate-mitigating behaviours. Explanatory variables capture demographic and socio-economic characteristics alongside structural support factors such as unpaid working hours, perceived availability of public services, housing cost burden, and digital access. Ordered logit models are employed to analyse how these factors shape reported perceptions, constraints, and behavioural intentions.
The findings show that gender inequality is most visible in labour market perceptions and unpaid care responsibilities. Women are more likely to report discrimination and to question equal pay and career opportunities, while unpaid care duties, especially in households with children, limit participation in work and social life. Stronger public services and digital access help mitigate these constraints. In contrast, energy vulnerability is driven mainly by housing cost burden and broader socio-economic conditions rather than gender alone. Climate-related behavioural intentions are shaped primarily by education and institutional context: higher education increases willingness to reduce energy consumption and support renewable energy, whereas weaker perceived public services reduce acceptance of higher transition costs. Overall, the results suggest that achieving a just and inclusive climate transition requires addressing structural inequalities, particularly housing affordability, care infrastructure, public service provision, and digital inclusion, rather than relying solely on formal gender equality commitments.

Ms Elena Ragazzi (p), dr. Ugo Finardi, Mrs Jeanne Vallette d’Osia, Dr Graziano Abrate, Dr Clementina Bruno, Dr. Fabrizio Erbetta

Energy systems, such as electric power networks, are increasingly digitalized. In consequence of this fact makes the concern for cybersecurity is constantly growing. The implications of cybersecurity, data protection and digital sovereignty are many: economic, political and social. Aim of this work is to investigate the economic value of cybersecurity, and in particular its spatial implications, through an apt methodology that takes in account its specific features. From the methodological point of view this work relies on a choice experiment: choice experiments belong to the general group of Cost-benefit analysis methodologies, and more in specific to Stated preferences methodologies. The present one is based on a wide Italian sample of 770 respondents. The sample is balanced in terms of age and geographical macro area. Besides questions investigating the socio-economic and demographic features of the interviewees’ households, two sections contain the core part of the survey. The first one of the two presents to each interviewee four scenarios inquiring the will for monetary compensation in change for a blackout of a defined length of time that may incur. In turn, the second one presents to each interviewee three scenarios, relative to the choice of receiving a monetary compensation in change for a data theft of different gravity. The obtained data have been analysed with the aid of an econometric analysis following a utility function approach. Acceptance rates vary strongly between the different scenarios. High acceptance rates are obviously related to the combination of highest compensation and the lowest level of disturbance in terms of blackout or data theft. In general respondents are sensibly less willing to accept a data theft scenario with respect to the case of a blackout. Coming to the econometric analysis, in the simplified model the only statistically significant variable is the age of respondents. A more refined model introduces regional characteristics variables. In this case black out data show that geographic peculiarities do not influence significantly the attitude towards the risk of blackout, notwithstanding the Italian regional characteristics. Generation divide is the only relative gap emerging from survey data. Regarding data theft scenarios, the variables that play a strongly significant effect are those measuring previous internet use and data theft experience.