Tackling energy poverty – we are all concerned!

16/01/2023

Living in energy poverty adversely affects people’s health and well-being. This has serious economic, political and social consequences for the countries where it is more widespread, particularly in Southern and Eastern Europe.

Energy poverty (EP) – commonly understood as a household’s inability to secure socially- and materially-necessitated levels of energy services in the home – is prevalent across Europe. Today, more than 80 million European households are struggling to attain adequate warmth, pay their utility bills on time, and live in homes free of damp and mould.

Energy Poverty has increased during the pandemic. European households were spending more time working from home increasing their energy consumption. Additionally, the current war in Ukraine and the rise of energy cost further increase precariousness.

Introducing ENGAGER

Because of the complexity of the topic and the fact that it has been studied from different perspectives, a research network led by outstanding scholars on energy poverty, Prof. Stefan Bouzarovski (ENGAGER Chair from 2017 to 2021) and Dr Harriet Thompson set out to tackle the issue. The European Energy Poverty research network: Agenda Co-Creation and Knowledge Innovation (ENGAGER) brought together more than 200 members based in universities, government bodies, think tanks, companies, advocacy groups, from 41 EU and non-EU countries to focus on the roots and potential solutions to tackle this challenge.

Energy poverty as an under-researched and relatively unknown phenomenon in 2017, became a high priority on today’s policy agenda. The insights, knowledge and network of ENGAGER created the perfect feeding ground for early-career researchers, senior scholars and policymakers to exchange and co-create research and policies to respond to ongoing crisis affecting the affordability and availability of sustainable energy services for many Europeans.”  

Dr Marielle Feenstra, the Action Chair since 2021.

The network ran from 2017 to 2022 and investigated the impact on consumers of environmental, technological and regulatory developments, like smart systems that use pricing to regulate energy demand. ENGAGER draws together scholars and practitioners based both within and outside Europe who focus on various aspects of complex energy poverty challenges.

The Action has developed toolkits and manuals to advise consumers, get help and switch providers if necessary. This toolkit provides key inputs for EU, Member States, and other relevant actors to set up comprehensive and out-of-the-box responses to energy poverty. It is aimed at developing and strengthening an international community of researchers and practitioners focused on combating energy poverty – (such as heating, lighting, cooling, appliances).

Graphic recordings made by Louisa Szymorek at the ENGAGER Energy Rights Forum 2021

EU-wide action

Principle 20 ● EU Pillar of Social Rights

Everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water, sanitation, energy, transport, financial services and digital communications. Support for access to such services shall be available for those in need.

The EU has already addressed some energy poverty issues, such as the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive under the Energy Union strategy. In 2018, the EU Energy Poverty Observatory, was established by the European Commission in order to catalogue and share data on energy poverty. It also provides “A Guide to Understanding and Addressing Energy Poverty”. It presents the concept of energy poverty with a close look on its main causes and vulnerability factors that can lead households or individuals into energy poverty.

Recent policies envisaged by the European wave of renovation are partly helping to address this challenge, but there is a need for much more comprehensive efforts in the future.

ENGAGER produced several Policy Briefs to help understand and address energy poverty with their results and recommendations. In addition, the network initiated the EP Pedia platform, which provides researchers and policy makers articles written by experts and state of play of energy poverty related topics in the world. Since most of the information on energy poverty-related policies and approaches is available only in national language, this provides analyses on national and local policies in English.

Finally, the during the COVID-19 crisis the Action was also instrumental in developing the ENGAGER Call for Action on the right to energy and interactive map to identify the energy poverty mitigation measures implemented across the globe to counter the pandemic-related energy needs.

Further information