Abstract
Energy poverty in the EU has a gender face; more women than men are struggling to afford the energy services which they need. The structural causes of energy poverty between European countries vary as well as the policies to address access to energy services. A metric approach dominates attempts to define and measure energy poverty which overlooks social characteristics within and between households.
While the existing data are limited, this chapter shows that there are clear gender differences, linked to other social characteristics, in the causes of energy poverty and the derived outcomes. This chapter shows that while economic factors are a contributor to energy poverty there are also biological/physiological and socio-cultural factors which are more difficult to capture quantitatively. When tracking policy initiatives to address energy poverty, arguments are presented for including an indicator which reflects the gender dimension of energy poverty and the intersectionality of this issue.
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Notes
- 1.
The Global South and Global North are concepts not used in a strict geographic sense but in a political economy sense of large disparities in wealth and political instability. There are pockets of the Global North in the South and vice versa. A universal definition is elusive, evolving and contested (for an overview see Clarke 2018). The origin of the concepts is in the Brandt Report (Brandt 1980) which made the link with countries emerging from colonialism and their economic situation although for many their economies have changed significantly over the last 30 years. In this chapter, the intention is to use the term in a descriptive way. The Global North can be taken to include United States, Canada, Europe (i.e. EU and non-EU), Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
- 2.
See for example Bouzarovski et al. (2012).
- 3.
There is no universally agreed definition of the concept of an energy service. Based on a systematic review of the literature, Fell proposed the following: energy services are those functions performed using energy which are means to obtain or facilitate desired end services or states (Fell 2017: 137). An example of a desired end service is ‘heating’ with the desired state ‘to be warm’. This is the definition we use.
- 4.
The EIGE is an autonomous body of the European Union, established to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality, including gender mainstreaming in all EU policies and the resulting national policies, and the fight against discrimination based on sex, as well as to raise EU citizens’ awareness of gender equality. http://eige.europa.eu/about-eige (accessed 1 May 2019).
- 5.
Indeed, there is no agreed use of terminology, with some documents using the term ‘fuel poverty’ rather than ‘energy poverty’.
- 6.
The formulation of policy at the central level, to be further developed at the national level is the principle of subsidiarity which is the basis for the relationship between the European Parliament and the Member States. The principle of subsidiarity makes the European Parliament reluctant to interfere with Member States decision making.
- 7.
Indeed, the formulation using ‘high’ or ‘insufficient’ are also problematic since these terms are pejorative.
- 8.
Responsibility for energy poverty policy in the UK is devolved to the regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England has no devolved government, so energy policy falls under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
- 9.
- 10.
Translated from Bulgarian from the Ministry of Energy website (News) ‘Министър Петкова: Задължително условие зa успешно преминаване към пълна либерализация на електроенергийния пазар е защитата на уязвимите клиенти в България’ (Minister Petkova: An essential requirement for successful transition to full liberalization of the energy market is the protection of vulnerable consumers in Bulgaria). https://www.me.government.bg/bg/news/ministar-petkova-zadaljitelnouslovie-za-uspeshno-preminavane-kam-palna-liberalizaciya-na-elektroener-2264.html. (Accessed 23 May 2019).
- 11.
Eurostat uses the term ‘household’ to mean a unit that has common arrangements to meet daily needs and pooling expenses in a shared residential space. This definition of a household excludes institutions such as prisons, military barracks, student accommodation, hospitals and residential care homes. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:Household_-_social_statistics. (accessed 13 August 2019).
- 12.
The UK official documents used the term fuel poverty rather than energy poverty.
- 13.
The concept has its origins in the UK in which the government compares the number of deaths that occurred in the winter period (defined as December to March) with the average number of deaths occurring in the preceding August to November and the following April to July (Office of National Statistics 2014).
- 14.
http://www.coldathome.today/ (accessed 13 August 2019).
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Feenstra, M., Clancy, J. (2020). A View from the North: Gender and Energy Poverty in the European Union. In: Clancy, J., Özerol, G., Mohlakoana, N., Feenstra, M., Sol Cueva, L. (eds) Engendering the Energy Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43513-4_8
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