Reacción a "Reactions to study estimating the economic impact of the energy crisis on households around the world"

The paper 'Burden of the global energy price crisis on households' by Guan et al. (2023) represents a valuable example of problem-oriented research and is highly relevant in the context of the international energy price crisis following the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. The authors use an input-output model applied to a global database with detailed information on 201 categories of household expenditure in 116 countries to determine that the tensions in international energy markets since 24 February 2022 are having clear negative short-term effects on household budgets (especially energy) for households around the world, albeit unevenly across regions, countries and income levels. 

Of particular concern is the result obtained for global figures on the prevalence of energy poverty, measured as the percentage of households in a country that spend more than 10% of their household budget on paying household energy bills. According to the study, it is estimated that between 166 and 538 million people in the 116 countries analysed will move into energy poverty, according to the above expenditure indicator as a result of the generalised rise in energy prices. In addition, it is estimated that the energy price crisis caused by the war in Ukraine will have a direct and indirect impact (i.e. also through food products and other consumer goods that depend on energy prices) that will increase the incidence of extreme monetary poverty - i.e. people whose disposable income is less than USD 2.15 per day in purchasing power parity units - by 78 to 114 million people. This is equivalent to 1.2 - 2.1 % of the global population.

These estimates are indicative of a certain risk of worsening material living conditions for the most disadvantaged segments of society globally. The findings of the study are therefore a call to governments and decision-makers to provide support for vulnerable households to cope with the current crisis in the cost of basic goods and services, especially food and energy. This support is already being provided in the form of fiscal measures such as tax rebates on energy products, discounts and subsidies on energy bills and caps on final energy prices which are, in part, pre-existing tools reactivated or reinforced in the context of the current crisis. But it should also be borne in mind that their application, without taking into account income or vulnerability criteria (through, for example, universal discounts on motor vehicle fuels), conflicts with the unavoidable objectives of decarbonising global economies in the medium and long term in order to tackle the climate emergency.