Beyond climate, culture and comfort in European preferences for low-carbon heat

It is imperative that climate, energy, and sustainability policy researchers practitioners grapple with the difficulty of decarbonizing heat, which remains largest single end-use energy service worldwide. In this study, based on a comparative assessment five original representative national surveys in Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom (N = 10,109), we explore public attitudes household heat decarbonization Europe. We how people conceive purposes low-carbon their preferences for particular forms supply, (at times odd) practices consumption temperature settings. The data reveal four significant challenges to are consistent across geographies: 1) High satisfaction existing, often fossil fuel based, heating systems; 2) Varying divergent expectations thermal comfort; 3) Householders unlikely change system near-term, part driven by low familiarity knowledge alternative 4) appears lower as mix decarbonized. paper concludes connecting these findings research implications.