EQUITY | Practical tools for a socially just energy transition

Sep 21, 2026

EQUITY | Practical tools for a socially just energy transition

We are launching a new research project: EQUITY | Practical tools for a socially just energy transition.

Researcher Olga Alcaraz, an expert in climate change and a member of the ISST team, starts this semester with the award of the EQUITY research project.

Under the framework of the 2024–2027 State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research, EQUITY addresses one of the major challenges on the climate agenda: ensuring that the energy transition is socially just and does not deepen existing structural inequalities.

An energy transition that does not deepen inequalities

The research starts from the hypothesis that current mitigation policies, such as building renovation or the promotion of electric mobility, tend to benefit higher-income households more, overlooking the needs of vulnerable groups and even generating rebound effects.

To reverse this trend, the central objective is the co-design and validation of the Equity Toolkit, a framework that provides municipalities with the capacity to diagnose vulnerabilities and energy poverty, design inclusive roadmaps and assess the distributive impact of measures, ensuring equitable climate planning from the grassroots.

The energy transition must incorporate social justice as an essential part of its planning.

Equity Toolkit: tools for equitable climate planning

The central objective of EQUITY is the co-design and validation of the Equity Toolkit, a framework aimed at providing municipalities with practical tools to understand energy inequalities and act upon them.

01 Diagnose Identify vulnerabilities and situations of energy poverty.

02 Design Create inclusive roadmaps and strategies adapted to the territory.

03 Evaluate Measure the distributive impact of climate measures.

A transdisciplinary methodology

EQUITY applies a transdisciplinary methodology that integrates engineering, sociology and economics, based on empirical validation in pilot municipalities with contrasting profiles.

The project will be developed in Barcelona, Premià de Mar and Rubí, three municipalities that will allow the tools developed to be tested in different territorial contexts.

It also incorporates an intersectional perspective to analyse how gender and socioeconomic inequalities condition access to energy, ensuring that the tools reflect the diversity of citizens.

Reducing inequalities and optimising public resources

The project aims to generate impacts in both the social and economic spheres, connecting climate planning with the real needs of communities.

Social impact

Reduction of inequalities and improvement of community wellbeing, placing the needs of vulnerable groups at the centre of climate planning.

Economic impact

Optimisation of public spending and prevention of future costs resulting from inaction or inequitable climate planning.

Six Work Packages to build and validate the Toolkit

The work plan is organised into six Work Packages that enable progress from the initial diagnosis to the transfer of the tools to public administrations.

1	Comprehensive diagnosis In the first phase, a comprehensive diagnosis is carried out through a literature review, expert interviews and analysis of available data.

2	Co-design of the tools In collaboration with a group of experts, the Toolkit's tools are co-designed, consisting of a set of indicators and a survey to address information gaps on energy habits and mobility according to income.

3	Application and validation in pilot municipalities The tools are applied in the pilot municipalities and validated through local communities of practice, refining the diagnoses and testing their usefulness against territorial realities.

4	Action and evaluation Based on the evidence generated, the Toolkit's action and evaluation modules are developed and validated, including long-term strategies, scenarios and roadmaps adapted to each municipality.

5	Participatory adjustment and transfer All tools are iteratively adjusted through participatory workshops with communities of practice and the expert group to ensure their feasibility and real-world usefulness.

Web platform and final event

As part of the transfer strategy, a web platform will be launched to host the Equity Toolkit and provide local and regional administrations with practical resources for designing inclusive policies. EQUITY will culminate in a final event to present and exchange results with key stakeholders.

The Toolkit's action and evaluation modules will incorporate monitoring mechanisms based on KPIs, checklists and protocols, enabling the implementation of strategies to be monitored and their results evaluated.

The strategies, scenarios and roadmaps will be adapted to the characteristics of each municipality and iteratively reviewed based on the evidence generated throughout the project.

EQUITY is created with the aim of contributing to a socially just energy transition, providing administrations with practical tools to understand inequalities, design inclusive policies and assess their impacts.

A just energy transition must take into account the needs and realities of all citizens.