Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Outline

Title
Abstract
Figures
Data Politics and Energy Poverty Metrics
Data Flattening
References
All Topics
Environmental Science
Sustainability Science

European energy poverty metrics: Scales, prospects and limits

Profile image of Ingmar LippertIngmar LippertProfile image of Harriet ThomsonHarriet Thomson

2020, Global Transitions

https://doi.org/10.1016/J.GLT.2020.01.003
visibility

…

description

11 pages

link

1 file

Abstract

Energy poverty, a condition whereby people cannot secure adequate home energy services, is gaining prominence in public discourse and on political and policy agendas. As its measurement is oper-ationalised, metrical developments are being socially shaped. A European Union mandate for biennial reporting on energy poverty presents an opportunity to institutionalise new metrics and thus privilege certain measurements as standards. While combining indicators at multiple scales is desirable to measure multi-dimensional aspects, it entails challenges such as database availability, coverage and limited disaggregated resolution. This article converges scholarship on metrics e which problematises the act of measurement e and on energy poverty e which apprehends socio-political and techno-economic particulars. Scholarship on metrics suggests that any basket of indicators risks silencing significant but hard to measure aspects, or unwarrantedly privileging others. State-of-the-art energy poverty scholarship calls for indicators that represent contextualised energy use issues, including energy access and quality, expenditure in relation to income, built environment related aspects and thermal comfort levels, while retaining simplicity and comparability for policy traction. We frame energy poverty metrology as the socially shaped measurement of a varied, multi-dimensional phenomenon within historically bureaucratic and publicly distant energy sectors, and assess the risks and opportunities that must be negotiated. To generate actionable knowledge, we propose an analytical framework with five dimensions of energy poverty metrology, and illustrate it using multi-scalar cases from three European countries. Dimensions include historical trajectories, data flattening, contextualised identification, new representation and policy uptake. We argue that the measurement of energy poverty must be informed by the politics of data and scale in order to institutionalise emerging metrics, while safeguarding against their co-optation for purposes other than the deep and rapid alleviation of energy poverty. This 'dimensioned' understanding of metrology can provide leverage to push for decisive action to address the structural underpinnings of domestic energy deprivation.

Figures (1)
Fig. 1. An analytical framework with five dimensions for energy poverty metrology research. The evolution of energy poverty metrics displays considerable contextual variance — within Europe, it goes back over three
Fig. 1. An analytical framework with five dimensions for energy poverty metrology research. The evolution of energy poverty metrics displays considerable contextual variance — within Europe, it goes back over three

Related papers

(Dis)United Kingdom? Potential for a common approach to energy poverty assessment
Joao Gouveia

Energy Research & Social Science, 2020

The UK has an extensive research base in the field of energy poverty, to the extent that other countries have based their policy approaches on the UK model. Despite this, there is no common method for measuring this condition across the UK. Additionally, sustaining meaningful reductions in UK energy poverty remains a challenge. While significant regional differences in UK energy poverty have been identified, it is not possible to draw direct comparisons between devolved countries. This paper explores the causes of these regional differences and contests that a common measurement across the UK countries would be insightful for resource allocation and policy design. The potential for applying a common multidimensional method of energy poverty assessment across the UK countries is investigated, with a strong focus on the value and viability of this process. Findings demonstrate that while there is a high level of data availability for input into a high spatial resolution index, this data is not compatible between countries and would have to undergo a process of data and metrics equivalisation before direct comparisons could be drawn. With increasing interest in the potential of multidimensional indexes to guide EU energy poverty policy, this paper provides useful insights into the practicalities of upscaling indexes between varied socio-political contexts.

View PDFchevron_right
Implications and Measurement of Energy Poverty across the European Union
Ionel BOSTAN

Sustainability, 2016

Energy poverty, or the inability of households to afford adequate access to energy services, is an issue that can have a significant effect on the quality of life and even the state of health of individuals and even the overall development of a nation. Since it was first brought into focus more than two decades ago in the UK, this topic has gradually gained the attention of academics and policy makers all across the EU and beyond. The current paper addresses the topic by providing not only a renewed discussion, but also an improved energy poverty indicator (with clear and relevant results at the EU level): the Compound Energy Poverty Indicator (CEPI). Moreover, knowing that the risk of poverty and social exclusion, efficiency of heating systems, total consumption of energy per household and rising energy prices tend to increase the severity of this problem in some countries, CEPI is then included into an econometric model so as to determine some possible factors that tend to put pressure on an already existing issue of energy poverty. The results of this research are expected to be relevant not only for academics (as it offers insights into the structure and severity of this topic within the European Union), but also for national and EU policymakers who are confronted in the field with the problem of sustainable development.

View PDFchevron_right
Energy Poverty : a problem without a definition
Vilma Djala

2019

Is energy poverty only one of the symptoms of poverty or is it a kind of poverty all in its own? And, if it is a specific phenomena, how do we define it and how do we even measure it? These are the questions that have been puzzling policy makers. As the energy poverty topic is slowly making it higher in the EU agenda, it is also highlighting the current poverty gap present in EU member states and the different level of progress in dealing with the problem. However, while experts try to find a compromise, people around Europe still struggle to keep

View PDFchevron_right
Energy poverty in the EU : indicators as a base for policy action
Florin Vondung

2019

In 2016, the European Commission presented the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package , comprising legislative proposals to facilitate the clean energy transition within the EU, such as the revised EPBD 2010/31/EU and EED 2012/27/EU.Besides putting energy efficiency first and achieving global leadership in renewable energy, a third goal of the package was to provide a "fair deal to consumers" with "no one left behind"., While in some Member States the issue of energy poverty already was on the political agenda, enabling affordable access to basic energy services for all households and thus reducing energy poverty is now an explicit policy target of the revised EU Directives. In order to assess and monitor the extent of the issue across the EU and address it by suitable measures, the concept of energy poverty needs to be defined, operationalised and measured. The paper aims to investigate the role of energy poverty indicators for policy making. To do so, it provid...

View PDFchevron_right
Energy Poverty in Europe: A Multidimensional Approach
Fabrizio Botti

PSL Quarterly Review, 2017

With the European Commission’s “Third Energy Package”, the challenges posed by energy poverty have been recently acknowledged by European legislation. The paper develops a synthetic indicator of energy poverty for the purpose of assessing households’ well-being across different domains of inequality in access to energy services and to a healthy domestic environment. These dimensions are broadly defined in terms of energy affordability and thermal efficiency, two of the main manifestations of energy poverty. The analysis focuses on Europe and expands on existing economic literature by employing a fuzzy analysis for the definition of a multidimensional energy poverty index, which is then used to investigate the role of individual and household characteristics in shaping energy poverty. We find that during the European crisis energy poverty has been more stable than monetary poverty, and that thermal efficiency plays a crucial role in shaping individual and countries’ average degrees...

View PDFchevron_right
Compendium: On existing and missing links between energy poverty and other scholarly debates
Marielle Feenstra

2020

Energy poverty alleviation requires a rethinking of our economic and social system (Bouzarovski 2018a). Energy poverty has traditionally been studied around the income-housing-energy price triangle (Thomson 2013), but new research avenues need to be opened to deepen our knowledge of energy poverty. To understand the multi-layered nature of energy poverty and how it is embedded in the existing system, we elaborated this compendium. With this we explore how energy poverty is linked with a wide array of aspects, from taxation, over gender to urban planning, opening paths for further research and deepening of knowledge. The compendium aims to explore existing and missing links in scholarly debate to illustrate the complexity of energy poverty and how it is understood across the European Union. This compendium is an informative collection of literature about the links between energy poverty and various areas. Thereby, it establishes which areas and links need to be investigated deeper to...

View PDFchevron_right
Towards a new measurement of Energy Poverty
Bilal Mirza

Most rural households in Pakistan remain in a state of energy poverty. They use a variety of non-conventional energy sources, including traditional biomass (firewood, animal and plant waste), kerosene and even LPG. A specially designed Energy Poverty Survey (EPS), carried out in rural Pakistan from December 2008 till January 2009, showed that rural households use different combinations of energy sources (the energy mix). This paper analyses the characteristics and consequences of the different energy mixes, used by richer and poorer rural households. Using data from the EPS, we develop a composite index to measure the degree of Energy Poverty among rural households. This index takes into account the inconvenience for the household associated with the use of different sources of energy, as well as its energy shortfall and takes household size into account. In our results, we found that 23.1% of rural households experience high degrees of energy inconveniences, spending ample amount of their time and effort in collecting or buying different energy sources. Next, using the standard conversion units to convert different energy sources into kilowatt hours, we found that 96.6% rural households experience severe energy shortfalls. Our new and inclusive measure of energy poverty which combines the energy inconveniences and the energy shortfalls, reveals that 91.7% of all rural households in Punjab province of Pakistan are in the state of severe energy poverty. Keywords: energy access; energy poverty measurement; energy indicators; energy inconvenience index; energy poverty index JEL Codes: I32, O13, Q01 UNU-MERIT Working Papers ISSN 1871-9872

View PDFchevron_right
Shedding Light: Unveiling the Dynamics of Energy Poverty in the EU
Giorgos Koukoufikis

2024

More than 10.5% of the population of the European Union (EU) struggled with inadequate home heating in 2023. This is a worrying escalation on previous years (+3.7 percentage points since 2021), with some countries reaching as high as 20%. At the same time 3% of EU citizens were affected by long-term persistent energy poverty, primarily challenged by utility bill arrears and difficulties in heating their homes. Energy poverty affected households across all income levels, with some regions witnessing substantial challenges even among those in the middle and highest income brackets. This report provides disaggregated data and statistical analysis on energy poverty indicators across all EU Members States, regions and socioeconomic strata. The findings highlight the urgent need for targeted interventions to address the deep-rooted causes of energy poverty and to reduce its prevalence across the EU. As we intensify efforts to achieve the energy transition, these insights are crucial to ensure that no citizen is left behind in the pursuit of a sustainable and equitable energy future.

View PDFchevron_right
Energy Poverty Indicators: Conceptual Issues - Part I: The Ten-Percent-Rule and Double Median/Mean Indicators
Rudolf Schuessler

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Energy poverty, long considered a problem limited to developing countries only, is now widely acknowledged as a challenge for advanced OECD countries as well. How energy poverty is perceived depends on the conceptualization and assessment of the underlying phenomena: inappropriately high costs for the provision of adequate energy services and/or a resulting push into poverty. In Europe, the UK has spearheaded the definition and measurement of such phenomena. The most common way to measure energy poverty is to set a 10 percent threshold of energy-related expenditure relative to net income. At the time this indicator was being developed, it equaled double the median share of energy expenditure relative to the income of all residents. This paper discusses approaches to measuring energy poverty and argues that the double median share threshold endorsed by British researchers is ill-suited for determining energy poverty. A fixed percentage threshold may be more suitable, provided it is empirically confirmed, adequately modified, and regularly updated.

View PDFchevron_right
Capturing the multifaceted nature of energy poverty: Lessons from Belgium
Kevin Maréchal

Energy Research & Social Science

View PDFchevron_right

References (113)

  1. S. Bouzarovski, S. Petrova, A global perspective on domestic energy depri- vation: overcoming the energy povertyefuel poverty binary, Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 10 (2015) 31e40.
  2. B. Boardman, Fuel Poverty: from Cold Homes to Affordable Warmth, Bell- haven, London, 1991.
  3. Eurostat, Energy statistics introduced, Accessed online on, https://ec.europa. eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Energy_statistics_introduced, 2019. (Accessed 8 November 2019).
  4. European Commission, Fourth Report on the State of the Energy Union, 2019. Accessed online on, https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2019/ EN/COM-2019-175-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-1.PDF. (Accessed 8 November 2019).
  5. R.J. Heffron, D. McCauley, B.K. Sovacool, Resolving society's energy trilemma through the Energy Justice Metric, Energy Policy 87 (2015) 168e176.
  6. W.N. Espeland, M.L. Stevens, Commensuration as a social process, Annu. Rev. Sociol. 24 (1) (1998) 313e343.
  7. L. S ebastien, T. Bauler, Use and influence of composite indicators for sus- tainable development at the EU-level, Ecol. Indicat. 35 (2013) 3e12.
  8. H. Thomson, S. Bouzarovski, C. Snell, Rethinking the measurement of energy poverty in Europe: a critical analysis of indicators and data, Indoor Built Environ. 26 (7) (2017) 879e901.
  9. S. Bouzarovski, Energy Poverty: (Dis)Assembling Europe's Infrastructural Divide, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018.
  10. G. Bridge, The map is not the territory: a sympathetic critique of energy research's spatial turn, Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 36 (2018) 11e20.
  11. H. Haarstad, S. Sareen, T.I. Wanvik, J. Grandin, K. Kjaerås, S.E. Oseland, H. Kvamsås, K. Lillevold, M. Wathne, Transformative social science? Modes of engagement in climate and energy solutions, Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 42 (2018) 193e197.
  12. L. Dencik, A. Hintz, J. Redden, E. Trer e, Exploring data justice: conceptions, applications and directions, Inf. Commun. Soc. 22 (7) (2019) 873e881.
  13. S. Okushima, Gauging energy poverty: a multidimensional approach, Energy 137 (2017) 1159e1166.
  14. L. Chester, A. Morris, A new form of energy poverty is the hallmark of lib- eralised electricity sectors, Aust. J. Soc. Issues 46 (2011) 435.
  15. A. Bhide, C.R. Monroy, Energy poverty: a special focus on energy poverty in India and renewable energy technologies, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 15 (2) (2011) 1057e1066.
  16. P. Wolpe, R. Yachika, Urban Energy Poverty: South Africa's policy response to the challenge, in: N. Simcock, H. Thomson, S. Petrova, S. Bouzarovski (Eds.), Energy Poverty and Vulnerability: A Global Perspective, Taylor and Francis, London, 2017, pp. 235e248.
  17. M.G. Pereira, M.A.V. Freitas, N.F. da Silva, Rural electrification and energy poverty: empirical evidences from Brazil, Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 14 (2010) 1229e1240.
  18. R. García Ochoa, E.B. Graizbord, Privation of energy services in Mexican households: an alternative measure of energy poverty, Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 18 (2016) 36e49.
  19. T. Hargreaves, S. Hielscher, G. Seyfang, A. Smith, Grassroots innovations in community energy: the role of intermediaries in niche development, Glob. Environ. Chang. 23 (5) (2013) 868e880.
  20. ENGAGER, European Energy Poverty: Agenda Co-creation and Knowledge Innovation (ENGAGER) Policy Brief 1, University of Manchester, Manchester, 2018.
  21. J. Viitanen, R. Kingston, Smart cities and green growth: outsourcing demo- cratic and environmental resilience to the global technology sector, Environ. Plan. 46 (4) (2014) 803e819.
  22. N.A. Van House, Digital libraries and practices of trust: networked biodi- versity information, Soc. Epistemol. 16 (1) (2002) 99e114.
  23. T.M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: the Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life, Princeton University Press, 1996.
  24. A. Lis, K. Kama, L. Reins, Co-producing European knowledge and publics amidst controversy: the EU expert network on unconventional hydrocar- bons, Sci. Public Policy (2019), https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scz025.
  25. P. Nussbaumer, F. Nerini, I. Onyeji, M. Howells, Global insights based on the multidimensional energy poverty index (MEPI), Sustainability 5 (5) (2013) 2060e2076.
  26. A. Simons, A. Lis, I. Lippert, The political duality of scale-making in envi- ronmental markets, Environ. Pol. 23 (4) (2014) 632e649.
  27. J. Angel, Irregular connections: everyday energy politics in catalonia, Int. J. Urban Reg. Res. (2019), https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12729.
  28. I. Lippert, Environment as datascape: enacting emission realities in corporate carbon accounting, Geoforum 66 (2015) 126e135.
  29. L. Gitelman (Ed.), "Raw Data" Is an Oxymoron, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2013.
  30. G.C. Bowker, S.L. Star, Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Conse- quences, MIT Press, 2000.
  31. H. Verran, Science and an African Logic, University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  32. J.C. Scott, Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, Yale University Press, 1998.
  33. I. Lippert, Failing the market, failing deliberative democracy: how scaling up corporate carbon reporting proliferates information asymmetries, Big Data Soc. 3 (2) (2016) 1e13.
  34. M. Klausner, Calculating therapeutic compliance, Sci. Technol. Stud. 31 (4) (2018) 30e51.
  35. M.G. Ames, Deconstructing the algorithmic sublime, Big Data Soc. 5 (1) (2018) 1e4, https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718779194.
  36. B. Wynne, Risk and environment as legitimatory discourses of technology: reflexivity inside out? Curr. Sociol. 50 (3) (2002) 459e477.
  37. H. Verran, Number as generative device: ordering and valuing our relations with nature, in: C. Lury, N. Wakeford (Eds.), Inventive Methods: the Happening of the Social, Routledge, London, 2012.
  38. I. Lippert, On not muddling lunches and flights, Sci. Technol. Stud. 31 (4) (2018) 52e74.
  39. B. Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, Harvard University Press, 1987.
  40. P.N. Edwards, A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming, MIT Press, 2010.
  41. S.E. Merry, The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence, and Sex Trafficking, University of Chicago Press, 2016.
  42. S. Pachauri, D. Spreng, Measuring and monitoring energy poverty, Energy Policy 39 (12) (2011) 7497e7504.
  43. B.C. Isherwood, R.M. Hancock, Household Expenditure on Fuel: Distribu- tional Aspects, Economic Adviser's Office, DHSS, London, 1979.
  44. J. Bradshaw, S. Hutton, Social policy options and fuel poverty, J. Econ. Psy- chol. 3 (1983) 249e266.
  45. J.D. Healy, J.P. Clinch, Fuel poverty, thermal comfort and occupancy: results of a national household-survey in Ireland, Appl. Energy 73 (2002) 329e343.
  46. S. Buzar, The 'hidden' geographies of energy poverty in post-socialism: be- tween institutions and households, Geoforum 38 (2) (2007) 224e240.
  47. S. Bouzarovski, S. Petrova, R. Sarlamanov, Energy poverty policies in the EU: a critical perspective, Energy Policy 49 (2012) 76e82.
  48. A. Dobbins, S. Pye, Member state level regulation related to energy poverty and vulnerable consumers, in: K. Csiba, A. Bajomi, A. Gosztonyi (Eds.), Energy Poverty Handbook, Greens/EFA group of the European Parliament, 2016.
  49. V. Singleton, When contexts meet: feminism and accountability in UK cattle farming, Sci. Technol. Hum. Values 37 (4) (2012) 404e433.
  50. S. Tirado Herrero, Energy poverty indicators: a critical review of methods, Indoor Built Environ. 26 (7) (2017) 1018e1031.
  51. H. Thomson, C. Snell, Quantifying the prevalence of fuel poverty across the European Union, Energy Policy 52 (2013) 563e572.
  52. R. Moore, Definitions of fuel poverty: implications for policy, Energy Policy 49 (2012) 19e26.
  53. C. Filippín, S.F. Larsen, F. Ricard, Improvement of energy performance metrics for the retrofit of the built environment. Adaptation to climate change and mitigation of energy poverty, Energy Build. 165 (2018) 399e415.
  54. J.P. Gouveia, J. Seixas, Unraveling electricity consumption profiles in house- holds through clusters: combining smart meters and door-to-door surveys, Energy Build. 116 (2016) 666e676.
  55. L. Suchman, Human-machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  56. B. Arts, J. Van Tatenhove, Policy and power: a conceptual framework be- tween the 'old'and 'new' policy idioms, Policy Sci. 37 (3e4) (2004) 339e356.
  57. S. Pye, A. Dobbins, C. Baffert, J. Brajkovi c, P. Deane, R. De Miglio, Addressing energy poverty and vulnerable consumers in the energy sector across the EU, Eur. Form. (4) (2015) 64e89.
  58. E. McCann, K. Ward, Policy assemblages, mobilities and mutations: toward a multidisciplinary conversation, Political Stud. Rev. 10 (3) (2012) 325e332.
  59. A. Saltelli, A short comment on statistical versus mathematical modelling, Nat. Commun. 10 (1) (2019) 1e3.
  60. H. Thomson, C.J. Snell, C. Liddell, Fuel poverty in the European Union: a concept in need of definition? People, Place Policy Online (2016) 5e24.
  61. S. Bouzarovski, S. Tirado Herrero, The energy divide: integrating energy transitions, regional inequalities and poverty trends in the European Union, Eur. Urban Reg. Stud. 24 (1) (2017) 69e86.
  62. U. Dubois, From targeting to implementation: the role of identification of fuel poor households, Energy Policy 49 (2012) 107e115.
  63. F. Wright, Old and cold: older people and policies failing to address fuel poverty, Soc. Policy Adm. 38 (5) (2004) 488e503.
  64. R. Walker, P. McKenzie, C. Liddell, C. Morris, Area-based targeting of fuel poverty in Northern Ireland: an evidenced-based approach, Appl. Geogr. 34 (2012) 639e649.
  65. J.P. Gouveia, J. Seixas, G. Long, Mining households' energy data to disclose fuel poverty: lessons for Southern Europe, J. Clean. Prod. 178 (2018) 534e550.
  66. C. Jehu-Appiah, G. Aryeetey, E. Spaan, I. Agyepong, R. Baltussen, Efficiency, equity and feasibility of strategies to identify the poor: an application to premium exemptions under National Health Insurance in Ghana, Health Policy 95 (2e3) (2010) 166e173.
  67. K. Rademaekers, J. Yearwood, A. Ferreira, S. Pye, I. Hamilton, P. Agnolucci, D. Grover, J. Kar asek, N. Anisimova, Selecting Indicators to Measure Energy Poverty, Trinomics, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2016.
  68. P. Palma, J.P. Gouveia, S. Simoes, Mapping the energy performance gap of residential dwelling stock at high resolution scale: implications for thermal comfort in Portuguese households, Energy Build. 190 (2019) 246e261.
  69. S. Tirado Herrero, D. Ürge-Vorsatz, Trapped in the heat: a post-communist type of fuel poverty, Energy Policy 49 (2012) 60e68.
  70. B.K. Sovacool, C. Cooper, M. Bazilian, K. Johnson, D. Zoppo, S. Clarke, J. Eidsness, M. Crafton, T. Velumail, H.A. Raza, What moves and works: broadening the consideration of energy poverty, Energy Policy 42 (2012) 715e719.
  71. Grandin, J., & Haarstad, H. (undated) The Geography of Urban Change: Transformation as Relational Mobilisation. (Unpublished manuscript).
  72. R. Falkner, Global environmental politics and energy: mapping the research agenda, Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 1 (2014) 188e197.
  73. K.W. Abbott, Engaging the public and the private in global sustainability governance, Int. Aff. 88 (3) (2012) 543e564.
  74. J. Hills. Getting the Measure of Fuel Poverty: Final Report of the Fuel Poverty Review. CASE Report (72), Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK, 2012.
  75. J.C. Romero, P. Linares, X. L opez Otero, X. Labandeira, A. P erez Alonso, Pobreza Energ etica en España. An alisis econ omico y propuestas de actuaci on, Economics for Energy, Madrid, 2014.
  76. J.D. Healy, Housing, Fuel Poverty, and Health: A Pan-European Analysis, Ashgate Pub, Aldershot, 2004.
  77. World Health Organization, Health Impact of Low Indoor Temperatures, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 1987.
  78. D. Ormandy, V. Ezratty, Health and thermal comfort: from WHO guidance to housing strategies, Energy Policy 49 (2012) 116e121.
  79. R. Wookey, A. Bone, C. Carmichael, A. Crossley, Minimum Home Temperature Thresholds for Health in Winter e A Systematic Literature Review, Public Health England, London, 2014.
  80. RCCTE e Decree Law 80/2006, Regulamento das Características de Com- portamento T ermico dos Edificios. [Regulation on the Characteristics of Thermal Behavior of Buildings], Government of Portugal, Lisbon, 2006.
  81. REH -Decree Law 118/2013, Regulamento de desempenho energ etico dos edifícios de habitação [Regulation on residential buildings energy perfor- mance], Government of Portugal, Lisbon, 2013.
  82. J.P. Gouveia, J. Seixas, A. Mestre, Daily electricity profiles from smart meters - proxies of active behaviour for space heating and cooling, Energy 141 (2017) 108e122, 2017.
  83. S.M.C. Magalhães, V.M.S. Leal, Characterization of thermal performance and nominal heating gap of the residential building stock using the EPBD-derived databases: the case of Portugal mainland, Energy Build. 70 (2014) 167e179.
  84. A. Szpor, Energy Poverty in Poland: Buzzword or Real Problem? Instytut Bada n Strukturalnych (IBS), Warsaw, 2016. No. IBS Policy Paper 2/2016.
  85. S. Tirado Herrero, D. Ürge-Vorsatz, Fuel Poverty in Hungary: A First Assess- ment, 3CSEP/Central European University, Budapest, 2010.
  86. S. Tirado Herrero, J.L. L opez Fern andez, P. Martín García, Pobreza energ etica en España, , Asociaci on de Ciencias Ambi- entales, Madrid, Spain, 2012.
  87. J.P. Gouveia, P. Palma, S. Simoes, Energy poverty vulnerability index: a multidimensional tool to identify hotspots for local action, Energy Rep. 5 (2019) 187e201.
  88. S. Bouzarovski, H. Thomson, Energy vulnerability in the grain of the city: toward neighborhood typologies of material deprivation, Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr. 108 (2018) 695e717.
  89. S. Tirado Herrero, Indicadores municipales de pobreza energ etica en la ciu- dad de Barcelona, RMIT Europe, Barcelona, 2018.
  90. A. Sanz Fern andez, G. G omez Muñoz, C. S anchez-Guevara S anchez, M. Núñez Peir o, Estudio t ecnico sobre pobreza energ etica en la ciudad de Madrid, Auntamiento de Madrid, 2017.
  91. F. Martín-Consuegra, A. Hern andez-Aja, I. Oteiza, C. Alonso, Distribuci on de la pobreza energ etica en la ciudad de Madrid (España), Rev. EURE-Rev. Estud. Urbano Reg. 45 (2019) 133e152.
  92. V. Ducrocq, Climate Change in the Mediterranean Region: the Mediterranean Region under Climate Change e A Scientific Update, Institut de recherche pour le d eveloppement, IRD, 2016.
  93. S. Gualdi, S. Somot, W. May, S. Castellari, M. D equ e, et al., Future climate projections, in: A. Navarra, L. Tubiana (Eds.), Regional Assessment of Climate Change in the Mediterranean vol. 1, 2013 (Air, Sea and Precipitation and Water).
  94. S. Todd, A. Steele, Modelling a culturally sensitive approach to fuel poverty, Struct. Surv. 24 (4) (2006) 300e310.
  95. C. Snell, M. Bevan, H. Thomson, Justice, fuel poverty and disabled people in England, Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 10 (2015) 123e132.
  96. B. Boardman, Fixing Fuel Poverty: Challenges and Solutions, Routledge, London, 2013.
  97. S. Tirado Herrero, L. Jim enez Meneses, J.L. L opez Fern andez, V. Irigoyen Hi- dalgo, Pobreza energ etica en España 2018. Hacia un sistema de indicadores y una estrategia de actuaci on estatales, Asociaci on de Ciencias Ambientales, Madrid, Spain, 2018.
  98. Ecoserveis, Atlas of Energy Poverty Initiatives in Europe. State-By-State Re- view, Ecoserveis, Barcelona, 2017.
  99. V. Greg orio, J. Seixas, Energy savings potential in urban rehabilitation: a spatial-based methodology applied to historic centres, Energy Build. 152 (2017) 11e23.
  100. R. Martins, P. Silva, M. Antunes, A. Fortunato, Estudo sobre a aplicação da tarifa social de energia em Portugal. [Study on the application of the social tariff in Portugal], Observat orio da Energia, 2019.
  101. D. Ormandy (Ed.), Housing and Health in Europe: the WHO LARES Project, Routledge, London; New York, 2009.
  102. S. Petrova, M. Gentile, I.H. M€ akinen, S. Bouzarovski, Perceptions of thermal comfort and housing quality: exploring the microgeographies of energy poverty in Stakhanov, Ukraine, Environ. Plan. 45 (5) (2013) 1240e1257.
  103. L. Delgado, et al., Radiografies de la situaci o del dret a l'habitatge, la pobresa energ etica i el seu impacte en la salut a Barcelona Informe I, Observatori DESC, Ag encia de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Enginyeria sense Fronteres, Aliança contra la Pobresa Energ etica, PAH BCN, Barcelona, 2018.
  104. MITECO, Estrategia Nacional contra la Pobreza Energ etica 2019-2024, Min- istry for Ecological Transition, Government of Spain, Madrid, 2018.
  105. CAN, Time to Pick up the Pace. Insights into the Draft National Energy and Climate Plans, Climate Action Network Europe, Brussels, 2019.
  106. S. Sareen, K. Rommetveit, Smart gridlock? Challenging hegemonic framings of mitigation solutions and scalability, Environmental Research Letters 14 (2019), 075004. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab21e6.
  107. S. Sareen, J. Grandin, European green capitals: branding, spatial dislocation or catalysts for change? Geogr. Ann. B Hum. Geogr. (2019) https://doi.org/ 10.1080/04353684.2019.1667258.
  108. Y. Aiyar, Invited spaces, invited participation: effects of greater participation on accountability in service delivery, India Rev. 9 (2) (2010) 204e229.
  109. A. Mol, The Body Multiple, Duke University Press, 2002.
  110. K. Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entan- glement of Matter and Meaning, Duke University Press, 2007.
  111. D. MacKenzie, An equation and its worlds: bricolage, exemplars, disunity and performativity in financial economics, Soc. Stud. Sci. 33 (6) (2003) 831e868.
  112. P.N. Edwards, M.S. Mayernik, A.L. Batcheller, G.C. Bowker, C.L. Borgman, Science friction: data, metadata, and collaboration, Soc. Stud. Sci. 41 (5) (2011) 667e690.
  113. D. Bigo, E. Isin, E. Ruppert (Eds.), Data Politics, Taylor & Francis, London, 2019.

Related papers

Rethinking the measurement of energy poverty in Europe: A critical analysis of indicators and data
caz snell

Indoor and Built Environment, 2017

Energy poverty-which has also been recognised via terms such as 'fuel poverty' and 'energy vulnerability'-occurs when a household experiences inadequate levels of energy services in the home. Measuring energy poverty is challenging, as it is a culturally sensitive and private condition, which is temporally and spatially dynamic. This is compounded by the limited availability of appropriate data and indicators, and lack of consensus on how energy poverty should be conceptualised and measured. Statistical indicators of energy poverty are an important and necessary part of the research and policy landscape. They carry great political weight, and are often used to guide the targeting of energy poverty measures-due to their perceived objectivity-with important consequences for both the indoor and built environment of housing. Focussing on the European Union specifically, this paper critically assesses the available statistical options for monitoring energy poverty, whilst also presenting options for improving existing data. This is examined through the lens of vulnerability thinking, by considering the ways in which policies and institutions, the built fabric and everyday practices shape energy use, alongside the manner in which energy poor households experience and address the issue on a day-today basis.

View PDFchevron_right
Revisiting energy poverty measurement for the European Union
Mohammad Kashour

2024

Energy poverty constitutes a multifaceted challenge encountered by households worldwide. Given its intricate nature, the imperative to measure it entails the adoption of composite or multidimensional indices encompassing diverse indicators. Despite the comprehensive body of literature at the European level, most studies focus on assessing energy poverty within individual countries. Also, none of these studies have considered examining the causes and effects of energy poverty in their evaluation processes. In response, this research introduces a novel composite index that recognizes three fundamental drivers of energy poverty: high energy cost, poor energy efficiency, and low income, alongside three ensuing consequences: insufficient warmth within dwellings, energy arrears, and dwelling quality issues. The aim is to rank the Member States of the European Union (EU) using two criteria: solely the consequential factors and all factors collectively. By contrasting these two ranking criteria, the analysis identifies the Member States that exhibit significant differences in their standings. These states can be categorized as underperformers, denoting a significant capacity to address the issue yet exhibiting relatively higher levels, or overperformers, indicating a limited capacity to address the issue with relatively lower levels. The results underscore Czechia as an overperforming state and France as a significantly underperforming state, prompting a deeper exploration into the driving forces behind these variations. In this manner, the study introduces an approach to detect the root causes of energy poverty across EU Member States through a comparative lens.

View PDFchevron_right
Energy poverty indicators: A critical review of methods
Sergio Tirado-Herrero

Indoor and Built Environment, 2017

The widespread recognition of energy poverty as a distinct societal and policy challenge in the EU has resulted in a surge in the number and complexity of energy poverty metrics. Drawing from the body of white and grey literature on domestic energy deprivation indicators now available, the paper offers a review-based discussion on the risks of uncritically elaborating and reporting energy poverty statistics. It identifies key conceptual and methodological challenges including: the diversity of domestic energy services and household needs accounted for; the distinction between actual and required domestic energy expenditures; the setting of thresholds and energy poverty lines; the equivalisation of household incomes and energy expenditures; the consideration of housing costs; the stated, subjective character of responses to survey questionnaires; the measurement of the 'depth' of energy poverty; issues surrounding measurement units and weighted indices; and issues around the socio-demographic, spatial and temporal representativeness of data. Based on the reviewed evidence and author's experience, the paper argues against official, single-indicator energy poverty metrics like the UK's low income-high cost and advocates for multiple-indicator approaches that explicitly acknowledge the shortcomings of each of the methods implemented.

View PDFchevron_right
Measuring and monitoring energy poverty
Shonali Pachauri

Energy Policy, 2011

This article undertakes a review of alternative measures and indicators of energy poverty targeted to specific audiences and for particular purposes. At the national and international scales there have been some efforts for constructing measures of energy poverty. However, much more needs to be done to develop an internationally consistent measurement framework and to put in place data collection systems that will enable regular reporting. At the programme and project level, indicator systems by necessity need to be designed for specific purposes. Nevertheless, the article proposes that in many instances it is desirable to widen the scope of metrics used for designing and evaluating policies and programmes. In the past, monitoring and evaluation indicators have focused largely on outputs, service delivery or dissemination. Central to the recommendations laid out in the paper is the call for widening the focus of evaluation and necessity to design indicators that adequately assess the needs of beneficiaries and describe the living conditions of families and communities, who are targeted by such programmes and initiatives.

View PDFchevron_right
A critical review of modern approaches for multidimensional energy poverty measurement
Shonali Pachauri

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment

Funding information Reiner Lemoine-Foundation Recent efforts to measure energy poverty more comprehensively attempt to redress the shortcomings of binary metrics that remain in common use. However, significant challenges remain both with the construction of the new measurement frameworks and their application. The paper presents an analysis of recent multidimensional measurement approaches and applications to draw inferences on the implications of applying these for the measurement of energy access and in informing policies aimed at improving it. The assessment suggests that despite progress having been made in capturing the multidimensional nature of energy poverty, the new measures are currently too complex to operationalize at the global level and too prescriptive to gain acceptance in diverse national contexts. Further efforts are thus required to consolidate and simplify the new frameworks for global tracking purposes, and to adapt and modify these to specific country contexts to inform national policy and planning. A subset of key energy poverty dimensions and uniform set of indicators need to be shortlisted for the purposes of global comparisons, while specific national tracking efforts can apply dimensions and thresholds most suited to accurately capture energy poverty and its drivers in a given context.

View PDFchevron_right

Related topics

  • Sustainability Indicators
  • Energy Poverty
  • Data Politics

    • Cited by

    Supplying Energy to Vulnerable Segments of the Population: Macro-Financial Risks and Public Welfare
    Saltanat Yessetova

    Energies

    The purpose of the study is to assess the level of energy supply to the population of the Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asian (EECCA) countries, taking into account their financial risk and energy efficiency for households as potential socially vulnerable consumers. The research methodology is based on three approaches to determining the energy poverty of the population, as well as the integral index of energy supply to socially vulnerable segments of the population. Based on the results of the three approaches to assessing the level of energy supply to the population of EECCA countries, it has been revealed that its critical indicators are found in Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine. The multivariate analysis of variance has revealed that, in all EECCA countries, both financial risk and energy efficiency levels have a significant impact. In Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia, financial risk has the greatest impact on the level of en...

    View PDFchevron_right
    Extracting Users: Regimes of Engagement in Norwegian Smart Electricity Transition
    Siddharth Sareen

    Science, Technology, & Human Values

    Recent efforts to involve digital technologies and renewables in the electricity grid have placed users at center stage in the legitimation of energy transitions. This move has been paralleled by an emphasis on users and energy practices in social studies of energy related to science and technology studies. This article builds on an eighteen-month Living Lab exploration of energy practices with smart electricity users in Bergen, Norway. We make two interrelated arguments. First, energy production and distribution in Norway and elsewhere is shifting toward greater automation of tasks, possibly bypassing the “active user” concept. Energy sector practices are evolving from simply extracting natural resources (Extraction 1.0) toward extraction of users’ behavioral data (Extraction 2.0), and privacy thus emerges as a key component in the stabilization of energy systems. Second, we reflect on displacements of the roles and possibilities of users (or “energy citizens”) thereby enabled, esp...

    View PDFchevron_right
    Does Energy Poverty Affect Energy Efficiency Investment Decisions? First Evidence from a Stated Choice Experiment
    Anastasios Balaskas, Christina Kal

    Energies

    Energy poverty is a multidimensional and continuously growing societal problem, with political roots. In pursuit of mitigating the problem, the European Commission has adopted a bundle of policies, such as consumer protection measures, short-term financial interventions, motivations for energy efficiency (e.g., energy retrofits and replacement of old household appliance) and information campaigns, among others. There is no doubt, however, that increasing the income of vulnerable households would be the most preferred and effective option. Focusing on energy efficiency, a measure typically incorporated in the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of many Member States as a means to fight energy poverty, this paper aims to shed light on the need to gradually move towards more localized—not to say personalized—actions. In this direction, a labeled choice-based experiment is used, which involves a hypothetical selection between three alternative energy interventions, i.e., house ret...

    View PDFchevron_right
    The Casual Nexus between Income and Energy Poverty in EU Member States
    Antonio Thomas

    Energies

    This paper investigates the presence of a causal relationship between energy poverty and income poverty in the EU Member States through a Panel Vector Autoregressive specification, and controlled with a set of explanatory variables collected from the Eurostat energy database and the OECD environment database for 2007–2018. Deepening the nexus between energy poverty and income poverty is a relevant issue for tailoring policies to tackle poverty and improve the well-being of citizens, supporting the policy makers in the allocation of planned funds provided by the Recovery plan, “Next Generation EU”. The results of the panel VAR model estimation and Dumitrescu and Hurlin test suggest that there will be no change in the long-run equilibrium when income poverty remains constant. Moreover, the reduction in energy poverty is expected to have a positive effect in terms of overall economic poverty reduction. Finally, there is evidence that substituting fossil fuels with renewables helps to r...

    View PDFchevron_right
    Implementing energy transition and SDGs targets throughout energy community schemes
    Felipe Barroco

    Journal of Urban Ecology

    Citizens are expected to play a great role in the future global energy transition, being able to give a decisive contribution to limit global warming to 1.5° and avoid the worst consequences. Empowering citizens is crucial and assigning them the role of prosumers in the new energy market is necessary to ensure a sustainable and fair pathway to the low-carbon energy transition. Creating energy communities (ECs) can also engage citizens by providing flexibility and ancillary services, reducing losses and curtailments in the grid. It also yields environmental and social benefits, activating virtuous circles in the local economy aligned with the SDGs of Agenda 2030. We illustrate the experience of an EC implementation, using GECO-Green Energy COmmunity project, as a case study. In particular, the in-depth qualitative analysis of the project from a social and technical perspective is provided. The GECO Project is active in the districts of Pilastro and Roveri, Bologna, Italy, being imple...

    View PDFchevron_right
    580 California St., Suite 400
    San Francisco, CA, 94104
    © 2025 Academia. All rights reserved