Opportunities and obstacles for vulnerable consumers in implementing the Portuguese Carbon Neutrality Strategy - a participatory approach

The Portuguese carbon neutrality strategy offers both opportunities and obstacles for vulnerable consumers. Portuguese policy advocates the advantages of carbon neutrality for an improved economy and social equity gains. Yet, there is a limited accounting for the impacts of the transition on established business interests. Additionally, information on the effects of these strategies on vulnerable consumers is lacking. We employ a stakeholder analysis supported by qualitative interviews to evaluate opportunities and obstacles for vulnerable consumers in the Portuguese energy transition. Our findings unveil strong domination of the stakeholder group by large scale businesses and a series of unknowns for vulnerable consumers, in part due to to the comparatively reduced presence of public interest groups in the stakeholder profile. Our qualitative interviews will explore Portuguese neutrality policies, power dynamics and "winners and losers" in the energy transition with a broad group of participants. We aim to contribute to the policy discourse on these issues and ultimately provide insights into realising an energy transition that equally benefits all members of society.