Investigating fuel poverty in the transport sector: toward a composite indicator of vulnerability

Audrey Berry (1) , Yves Jouffe (2) , Nicolas Coulombel (3) , Céline Guivarch (1)

1 CIRED - centre international de recherche sur l'environnement et le développement
2 LAB'URBA - LAB'URBA
3 LVMT - Laboratoire Ville, Mobilité, Transport

This paper investigates the issue of fuel poverty and of its measurement in the transport sector. We seek to identify households who run the risk of facing difficulties if fuel prices increase. We show that fuel poverty indicators from the domestic sector are not satisfactory in this regard. They fail to take into account three specificities of the transport sector: (1) the diversity of travel needs, (2) restriction behaviours, and (3) variable capacities to adapt. We propose a composite indicator that targets factors of vulnerabilities. In contrast to the previous indicators, it does not solely focus on budgetary aspects but also reflects conditions of mobility. Three levels of exposition to rising fuel prices are considered, depending on the combinations of factors. We test this indicator on French data and find that 7,8% of French households are identified fuel poor, a further 7,4% fuel vulnerable and a further 3,7% fuel dependent.

Mots clés: Fuel poverty; Vulnerability; Transport; Measurement

Domaines: Economies et finances; Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Audrey Berry, Yves Jouffe, Nicolas Coulombel, Céline Guivarch. Investigating fuel poverty in the transport sector: toward a composite indicator of vulnerability. Energy Research & Social Science, 2016, ⟨10.1016/j.erss.2016.02.001⟩. ⟨hal-01277414⟩