Poverty, Population, and Energetical Progress in European Union

Energy poverty is closely connected to the current energy transformation focused on the utilization of renewable sources of energy. The thesis aims to evaluate whether European Union countries are prepared to tackle energy poverty effectively in the context of the ongoing transformation, which could impose an additional burden on vulnerable consumers. The thesis presents hierarchical clustering to group countries by common characteristics and assesses the countries' National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) within the clusters. The study concludes that National Energy and Climate Plans are poorly specified for most European Union Member States. Only fifteen countries address energy poverty effectively, and only nine countries have appropriate measures and tools to tackle energy poverty, evaluating 2019 NECPs and 2023 NECP drafts if available. Next, the thesis describes a nonlinear relationship between energy poverty and both the total share of renewables on final consumption and the energy efficiency index of households - linked to investments for deploying renewable energy sources. Finally, an exploratory Agent-based model is presented. JEL Classification Q430, Q480, Q470, N7 Keywords Energy poverty, National Energy and Climate Plan, Fuel Transitions, Green Premium, Energy Transformation, Energy..