REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN HUNGARIAN URBAN ENERGY CONSUMPTION - A LINK BETWEEN SMART CITIES AND SUCCESSFUL CITIES

Cities account for 60-80% of global energy consumption, and based on projections the development of urban areas will be the main engine of energy use growth in the future. While it may seem that this topic plays only a marginal role in urban research, in energy economics more and more studies are focusing on the concept of the smart energy city and resilient city related to energy use as a possible way toward sustainability and human wellbeing. Our main objective is to examine the dimension of smart environment through residential energy use. We focus on the regional disparities of urban energy use (electricity use and natural gas consumption) in Hungary. The analysis covers 23 Hungarian cities and Budapest during the period from 2010 to 2015. The Theil Index and the area-based Gini index are calculated. We conclude that on the whole no significant inequalities or spatial differences were identified among the cities. The Theil Index components (within-group inequality component and between-group inequality component) draw attention to the within-group differences related to natural gas consumption. These disparities are more decisive than values of the between-group inequality components. It cannot be stated that belonging to the "elite" groups of cities causes significant changes in the urban electricity and natural gas consumption patterns.