Report
OA Policy
English

Publications on distributional impacts and their management across the Swiss regions and municipalities. Deliverable Report 8.6 for the SWEET EDGE Project

MandatorSwiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE
First online date2024-04-01
Abstract

This work aims to quantify the distributional household-level impacts of two policies that could be used to increase the share of renewable energy in Switzerland: (i) potential bans on fossil fuel cars and heating boilers and (ii) existing and alternative solar PV incentives. Using a newly-developed microsimulation approach based on representative household samples obtained from Swiss surveys, the distributional impacts are analysed across different Swiss regions, across different household groups (income, socio-demographics etc.), and to some extent across different stakeholders (households vs. the public budget). The synergies and trade-offs between the policies’ effectiveness in terms of climate change mitigation potential, justice, and costs for various policy designs are also evaluated. Several inequalities in policy burdens and benefits are found among household groups. Households with lower income level, those living in rural and periurban settings, residents of the Swiss canton of Ticino, couples with children, and Swiss nationals would be the most adversely affected by fossil fuel car bans. In terms of fossil fuel boiler bans, the most adversely affected households would be the ones with lower income level, those living in rural and urban areas, and residents of the canton of Vaud. Household groups with better access to current solar PV incentives are larger, the highest-income, rural, and households in the canton of Lucerne. In terms of policy design, more ambitious bans on fossil fuel cars and boilers that target more emissions are more egalitarian in the way they affect households, but less just under other conceptions of justice. If the objective is to create the least cumulative damage or reduce the number of the most vulnerable households, the best compromise between the mitigation potential and justice is to include exemptions from bans for the lowest-income households. Regarding solar PV incentives, less-fragmented incentive schemes throughout Switzerland either with a minimum feed-in tariff threshold or with an additional nationally uniform grant instead of local grants could offer a good alternative to the current scheme in terms of cost-effectiveness and justice.

Keywords
  • Distributional impacts
  • Microsimulation
  • Energy policy evaluation
  • Solar Photovoltaic Incentives
  • Bans
  • Heating boilers
  • Fossil fuel cars
Funding
  • Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE - SWEET consortium EDGE
Citation (ISO format)
TORNE DIAZ DE HEREDIA, Alexandre et al. Publications on distributional impacts and their management across the Swiss regions and municipalities. Deliverable Report 8.6 for the SWEET EDGE Project. 2024
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Report
Identifiers
  • PID : unige:192609
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