Who is more dependent on gas consumption? Income, gender, age, and urbanity impacts

A Dutch household is two times more dependent on gas than an average European Union household. The Dutch Climate Agreement targets phasing out households' gas consumption before 2030. However, it is unclear who will be affected by this policy. Controlling for various building and climate factors, this study analyses the associations between socioeconomic characteristics of households, Gas-use, i.e. annual gas consumption per capita, and Gas-dependency, i.e. the share of gas from total household energy consumption, in the residential zones of the Netherlands in 2018. As a result, three types of socioeconomic groups are identified: (1) more gas-use and more gas-dependency, including low-incomes, high-incomes, the population age 65 or more; (2) more gas-use and less gas-dependency, including the population age 14 or younger; (3) less gas-use and less gasdependency, including large households, the population age 15-24, immigrants, females, urban households, and tenants. It shows that Gas-use and Gas-dependency spatial patterns do not necessarily overlap, and the simultaneous study of the two variables is essential. It offers a series of policies for gas-intensive groups: progressive energy tax (high incomes), safety net against energy poverty (low incomes), Third Places and local communities (senior citizens), demand response management (population younger than 14 years old).