In an era of U.S. energy abundance, the persistently high energy bills paid by low-income households is troubling. After decades of weatherization and bill-payment programs, low-income households still spend a higher percent of their income on electricity and gas bills than any other income group. Their energy burden is not declining, and it remains persistently high in particular geographies such as the South, rural America, and minority communities.

This rapid review identified two results extracted from the eight studies (published between 2013 and 2018) that fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Firstly, our analysis identified five common themes across the included studies which provide tentative information for what would be needed to make low carbon residential retrofit/renovation policy work. Secondly, we make an overall observation that the included studies did not provide sufficient evidence or establish conclusive results about the effectiveness of specific low carbon policies compared to other policies.

Co-benefits rarely enter quantitative decision-support frameworks, often because the methodologies for their integration are lacking or not known. This review fills in this gap by providing comprehensive methodological guidance on the quantification of co-impacts and their integration into climate-related decision making based on the literature. The article first clarifies the confusion in the literature about related terms and makes a proposal for a more consistent terminological framework, then emphasizes the importance of working in a multiple-objective–multiple-impact framework.