Editing IPCC:AR6/WGIII/Chapter-5 (section)

==== 5.2.1.1 Services for Well-being ====

<div id="h3-1-siblings" class="h3-siblings"></div>

Well-being needs are met through services. Provision of services associated with low energy demand is a key component of current and future efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Services can be provided in various culturally-appropriate ways, with diverse climate implications. There is ''high evidence'' and ''high agreement'' in the literature that many granular service provision systems can make ‘demand’ more flexible, provide new options for mitigation, support access to basic needs, and enhance human well-being. Energy services offer an important lens to analyse the relationship between energy systems and human well-being ( [[#Jackson--2008|Jackson and Papathanasopoulou 2008]] ; [[#Druckman--2010|Druckman and Jackson 2010]] ; [[#Mattioli--2016|Mattioli 2016]] ; [[#Walker--2016|Walker et al. 2016]] ; [[#Fell--2017|Fell 2017]] ; [[#Brand-Correa--2018|Brand-Correa et al. 2018]] ; [[#King--2019|King et al. 2019]] ; [[#Pagliano--2019|Pagliano and Erba 2019]] ; [[#Whiting--2020|Whiting et al. 2020]] ). Direct and indirect services provided by energy, rather than energy itself, deliver well-being benefits ( [[#Kalt--2019|Kalt et al. 2019]] ). For example, illumination and transport are intermediary services in relation to education, health care, meal preparation, sanitation, and so on, which are basic human needs. Sustainable consumption and production revolve around ‘doing more and better with the same’ and thereby increasing well-being from economic activities ‘by reducing resource use, degradation and pollution along the whole lifecycle, while increasing quality of life’ ( [[#UNEP--2010|UNEP 2010]] ). Although energy is required for delivering human development by supporting access to basic needs ( [[#Lamb--2015|Lamb and Rao 2015]] ; [[#Lamb--2017|Lamb and Steinberger 2017]] ), a reduction in primary energy use and/or shift to low-carbon energy, if associated with the maintenance or improvement of services, can not only ensure better environmental quality but also directly enhance well-being ( [[#Roy--2012|Roy et al. 2012]] ). The correlation between human development and emissions is not necessarily coupled in the long term, which implies there is a need to prioritise human well-being and the environment over economic growth ( [[#Steinberger--2020|Steinberger et al. 2020]] ). At the interpersonal and community levels, cultural specificities, infrastructure, norms, and relational behaviours differ (Box 5.3). For example, demand for space heating and cooling depends on building materials and designs, urban planning, vegetation, clothing and social norms as well as geography, incomes, and outside temperatures ( [[#Brand-Correa--2018|Brand-Correa et al. 2018]] ; [[#Campbell--2018|Campbell et al. 2018]] ; [[#Ivanova--2018|Ivanova et al. 2018]] ; [[#IEA--2019b|IEA 2019b]] ; [[#Dreyfus--2020|Dreyfus et al. 2020]] ). In personal mobility, different variable needs satisfiers (e.g., street space allocated to cars, buses or bicycles) can help satisfy human needs, such as accessibility to jobs, health care, and education. Social interactions and normative values play a crucial role in determining energy demand. Hence, demand-side and service-oriented mitigation strategies are most effective if geographically and culturally differentiated ( [[#Niamir--2020a|Niamir et al. 2020a]] ).

Decent living standards (DLS) serves as a socio-economic benchmark as it views human welfare not in relation to consumption but rather in terms of services which together help meet human needs (e.g., nutrition, shelter, health, etc.), recognising that these service needs may be met in many different ways (with different emissions implications) depending on local contexts, cultures, geography, available technologies, social preferences, and other factors. Therefore, one key way of thinking about providing well-being for all with low carbon emissions centres around prioritising ways of providing services for DLS in a low-carbon way (including choices of needs satisfiers, and how these are provided or made accessible). They may be supplied to individuals or groups or communities, both through formal markets and/or informally, for example by collaborative work, in coordinated ways that are locally appropriate, designed and implemented in accordance with overlapping local needs.

The most pressing DLS service shortfalls, as shown in Figure 5.2, lie in the areas of nutrition, mobility, and communication. Gaps in regions such as Africa and the Middle East are accompanied by current levels of service provision in the highly industrialised countries at much higher than DLS levels for the same three service categories. The lowest population quartile by income worldwide faces glaring shortfalls in housing, mobility, and nutrition. Meeting these service needs using low-emissions energy sources is a top priority. Reducing GHG emissions associated with high levels of consumption and material throughput by those far above DLS levels has potential to address both emissions and inequality in energy and emission footprints ( [[#Otto--2019|Otto et al. 2019]] ). This, in turn, has further potential benefits; under the conditions of ‘fair’ income reallocation to public services, this can reduce national carbon footprint by up to 30% while allowing the consumption of those at the bottom to increase ( [[#Millward-Hopkins--2021|Millward-Hopkins and Oswald 2021]] ). The challenge then is to address the upper limits of consumption. When consumption only just supports the satisfaction of basic needs, any decrease causes deficiencies in human-need satisfaction. This is quite unlinke the case of consumption that exceeds the limits of basic needs, in which deprivation causes a subjective discomfort ( [[#Brand-Correa--2020|Brand-Correa et al. 2020]] ). Therefore, to collectively remain within environmental limits, the establishment of minimum and maximum standards of consumption, or sustainable consumption corridors, ( [[#Wiedmann--2020|Wiedmann et al. 2020]] ) has been suggested, depending on the context. In some countries, carbon-intensive ways of satisfying human needs have been locked-in, for example via car-dependent infrastructures ( [[#Jackson--2008|Jackson and Papathanasopoulou 2008]] ; [[#Druckman--2010|Druckman and Jackson 2010]] ; [[#Mattioli--2016|Mattioli 2016]] ; [[#King--2019|King et al. 2019]] ), and both infrastructure reconfiguration and adaptation are required to organise need satisfaction in low-carbon ways (see also [[IPCC:Wg3:Chapter:Chapter-10#10.2|Section 10.2]] ).

<div id="_idContainer011" class="Basic-Text-Frame"></div>

[[File:a7c3b34a9e34a6cb0cf7ba886618ef22 IPCC_AR6_WGIII_Figure_5_2.png]]

'''Figure 5.2''' [[#footnote-000|2]] '''| Heterogeneity in access to and availability of services for human well-being within and across countries.''' Panel '''(''' '''a)''' Across-country differences in panel (a) food (meat and other), (b) housing, (c) mobility, (d) communication (mobile phones and high-speed internet access). Variation in service levels across countries within a region is shown as error bars (black). Values proposed as decent standards of living threshold ( [[#Rao--2019b|Rao et al. 2019b]] ) are shown as red dashed lines. Global average values are shown as blue dashed lines. Panel '''(b)''' Within-country differences in service levels as a function of income differences for the Netherlands (bottom and top 10% of incomes) and India (bottom and top 25% of incomes) ( [[#Grubler--2012b|Grubler et al. 2012b]] ) (data update 2016). Panel '''(c)''' Decent living energy (DLE) scenario using global, regional and DLS dimensions for final energy consumption at 149 EJ (15.3 GJ cap –1 yr –1 ) in 2050 ( [[#Millward-Hopkins--2020|Millward-Hopkins et al. 2020]] ), requiring advanced technologies in all sectors and radical demand-side changes. Values are shown for five world regions based on the AR6 WGIII Regional breakdown. We use passenger kilometres per day per capita ( km day '''–1''' cap '''–1''' ) as a metric for mobility only as a reference, however, transport and social inclusion research suggest the aim is to maximise accessibility and not travel levels or travelled distance.

There is ''high evidence'' and ''high agreement'' in the literature that vital dimensions of human well-being correlate with consumption, but only up to a threshold. High potential for mitigation lies in using low-carbon energy for new basic needs satisfaction while cutting emissions of those whose basic needs are already met ( [[#Grubler--2018|Grubler et al. 2018]] ; [[#Rao--2018b|Rao and Min 2018b]] ; [[#Rao--2019b|Rao et al. 2019b]] ; [[#Millward-Hopkins--2020|Millward-Hopkins et al. 2020]] ;

[[#Keyßer--2021|Keyßer and Lenzen 2021]] ). Decent living standards indicators serve as tools to clarify this socio-economic benchmark and identify well-being for all compatible mitigation potential. Energy services provisioning opens up avenues of efficiency and possibilities for decoupling energy services demand from primary energy supply, while needs satisfaction leads to the analysis of the factors influencing the energy demand associated with the achievement of well-being ( [[#Brand-Correa--2017|Brand-Correa and Steinberger 2017]] ; [[#Tanikawa--2021|Tanikawa et al. 2021]] ). Vital dimensions of well-being correlate with consumption, but only up to a threshold: decent living energy thresholds range from about 13 to 18.4 GJ cap –1 yr – 1 of final energy consumption but the current consumption ranges from under 5 GJ cap –1 yr –1 to over 200 GJ cap –1 yr –1 ( [[#Millward-Hopkins--2020|Millward-Hopkins et al. 2020]] ), thus a mitigation strategy that protects minimum levels of essential-goods service delivery for DLS, but critically views consumption beyond the point of diminishing returns of needs satisfaction, is able to sustain well-being while generating emissions reductions ( [[#Goldemberg--1988|Goldemberg et al. 1988]] ; [[#Jackson--1999|Jackson and Marks 1999]] ; [[#Druckman--2010|Druckman and Jackson 2010]] ; [[#Girod--2010|Girod and De Haan 2010]] ; [[#Vita--2019a|Vita et al. 2019a]] ; [[#Baltruszewicz--2021|Baltruszewicz et al. 2021]] ). Such relational dynamics are relevant both within and between countries, due to variances in income levels, lifestyle choice (see also [[#5.4.4|Section 5.4.4]] ), geography, resource assets and local contexts. Provisioning for human needs is recognised as participatory and inter-relational; transformative mitigation potential can be found in social as well as technological change ( [[#Mazur--1974|Mazur and Rosa 1974]] ; [[#Goldemberg--1985|Goldemberg et al. 1985]] ; [[#Lamb--2017|Lamb and Steinberger 2017]] ; [[#O’Neill--2018|O’Neill et al. 2018]] ; [[#Hayward--2019|Hayward and Roy 2019]] ; [[#Vita--2019a|Vita et al. 2019a]] ). More equitable societies which provide DLS for all can devote attention and resources to mitigation ( [[#Richards--2003|Richards 2003]] ; [[#Dubash--2013|Dubash 2013]] ; [[#Rafaty--2018|Rafaty 2018]] ; [[#Oswald--2021|Oswald et al. 2021]] ). For further exploration of these concepts, see [https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/chapter/chapter-5 Chapter 5] Supplementary Material I.

<div id="5.2.2" class="h2-container"></div>

<span id="inequity-in-access-to-basic-energy-use-and-services"></span>