• Energy Research

Energy poverty is emerging as a national agenda in the Netherlands. Local authority leadership and action on this agenda, and European Union reporting requirements around the energy transition have aligned to create an opportunity to establish a national agenda on this issue. Early action on energy poverty by local authorities stemmed from their recognition of the value of addressing environmental, health, social welfare and poverty goals through measures to address the problem. In contrast, the experiences of vulnerable energy consumers have limited recognition in national policy. Meanwhile EU requirements for climate reporting include a specification for measuring and monitoring energy poverty. This growing momentum has resulted in an emerging interest in energy poverty as a means to achieve a just transition at a national level, as reflected in the Dutch National Climate and Energy Plan. In this paper, we profile the case of the Netherlands, and outline the opportunity we see for the development of an energy poverty agenda in national energy transition policy, as part of a multi-level energy governance effort. We report on a national stakeholder workshop that we led, linking the lived experience of energy poverty in the Netherlands with policy solutions. Following the clear call for a national policy in this workshop, we also outline a strategy for engagement with energy poverty in the Netherlands, published recently in a white paper on this topic.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, presents an overview of the situation within the EU with regard to the way energy poverty is experienced by women and men and explores through a gender lens existing EU legislation and policy to address energy poverty. Interpretation and implementation of EU legislation at national level are also investigated. Possible opportunities to ensure that policies and interventions to address energy poverty are more gender aware are identified and discussed.

Abstract Differences between women and men in their access to and use of energy services constitutes the core of gender-energy nexus research. In early 2010s, the concept of energy justice has emerged as a response to the need to address justice issues in energy access, use and policy making. However, the gender-energy nexus research lacks the conceptual basis to analyse energy policies from a justice perspective. This paper aims to bridge this scientific and policy knowledge gap by developing and applying a conceptual framework by juxtaposing the three tenets of energy justice (distributive, recognitional and procedural justice) and the three engendering policy discourses (women empowerment, gender mainstreaming and social inclusion). To develop the framework, we conducted a conceptual review of 56 scientific publications by identifying, examining and synthesising the key ideas and debates in energy justice and engendering energy policy. Then we applied the framework to the current body of scientific knowledge on gender and energy justice and identified future research directions. Given the limited scientific literature on gender and energy justice, the framework contributes to conceptualising energy justice for researchers analysing energy systems in their social, cultural, economic and political contexts. This paper makes a first attempt in doing so, and invites further elaboration and operationalisation of the framework. A comprehensive application of the framework requires further empirical evidence and the development of indicators to assess energy policies from an integrated gender and energy justice perspective.

Gender and energy in the North is an under-researched area. Most of the work to date has focused on making the case that a gender dimension in energy exists – with a significant emphasis on promoting women working in the sector. This chapter aims to extend our understanding of gender in energy focusing on energy poverty, also an issue not widely recognised as existing within the Global North. However, it is estimated that more than 54 million people in Europe have difficulty paying their energy bills or have limited access to high quality energy because of low incomes. Even less well recognised is the fact that there is a gender dimension to this issue. Due to their lower average income, women are at a greater risk of energy poverty than men. As part of a growing recognition of this problem, in December 2016, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution on access to energy which called for the EU to include a gender dimension in all its energy policies. The question is: to what extent is gender already taken into account in EU energy law and policy? And where are the gaps in the normative frameworks at the EU and Member-State level? This chapter analyses existing EU energy poverty law and policy related through a gender lens. The methodology used is a mix of literature review, desk review of policy documents (both on EU and national level) combined with mapping and a case study approach of gender and energy poverty in seven EU Member States (Bulgaria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK). The findings are combined with the insights from interviews with key informants conducted in 2017-2018. This chapter will start with insights into energy poverty as experienced by women and men, mediated by social characteristics, within the European Union. One of the challenges of exploring the gender dimension of energy poverty in the EU, is that there is no agreed definition of energy poverty. Furthermore, deriving such a definition is hampered by the limited data available which tend to be qualitative. The chapter summarizes definitions of energy poverty that have been developed by both researchers and public institutions and proposes a metric for assessing the gender dimension of energy poverty. We survey the normative framework in seven Member States with respect to gender and energy services. We examine how existing EU legislation is interpreted and implemented at the national level. Also, any initiatives in the case study countries which provide positive examples of addressing issues related to gender and energy poverty are identified. In this context, the study explores the recommendation of a definition of energy poverty which reflects the context across member states but is suitable for cross-comparison, to define indicators of energy poverty to enable tracking of progress and support measures.We argue that a more gender-aware energy policy is needed to address energy poverty. A starting point for the process of creating a more gender-aware energy policy is raising awareness of the issues. Therefore the next section uses the conceptual map of the drivers, causes and effects of energy poverty developed by Trinomics (2016) to explore these issue and to make recommendations on how energy poverty can be addressed with gender equitable outcomes. Within this conceptual framework, the gender gaps are identified. There are gender dimensions to the drivers, factors and outcomes of energy. Gender and energy poverty in the EU member states, is analysed from three interlinked perspectives: economic: e.g. Women with low incomes are disproportionately found as heads of households either as single parent families or, due to their greater longevity than men, living alone at pensionable age biological/physiological: e.g. Age is a significant factor in dealing with heat and cold stress, with young children and older people being particularly vulnerable. Women are also considered to be more sensitive to ambient temperature than men.socio-cultural: women’s energy needs and consumption patterns differ compare to men but also among women, factors like marital status and employment influence energy consumption. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the EU and member states on the way forward to addressing gender and energy poverty.

The chapter by the Editors introduces the book 'Engendering the Energy Transition' explaing why there is a need for such a book, its innovative approach to publication and the debates it contributes to in the context of the SDGs.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the FEMM Committee, examines the evidence on the role of women in the energy transition in the European Union and the extent of gender equality in the process particularly in respect of the renewable energy sector. The study identifies gender inequalities preventing women from the involvement in the energy transition and career advancement in this area and assesses how the transfer to the sustainable energy model will affect gender equality and the role of women as actors of change. It provides best practices in overcoming the barriers to gender equality in the energy transition and concludes with recommendations to the EU and national decision makers.

This article examines the multidimensional problem of energy poverty, focusing on its connections to climate change and its manifestation at rural and urban scales across selected European countries and Israel. The study examined 31 locations in eight countries with diverse geographical and economic backgrounds: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, North Macedonia, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, and Israel. The article aims to understand how winter energy vulnerability in rural and urban locations in these countries could be identified using selected energy poverty indicators and how it evolves under the influence of climate change. A set of sociodemographic, infrastructural, and economic variables, combined with climate analysis, were selected and assessed for their impact on energy poverty. We found that energy poverty in most countries depends significantly on location and regional development. Due to a combination of factors influencing energy poverty, rural households tend to be more vulnerable. Furthermore, climate change consequences will likely leave rural areas more likely to experience energy poverty in the future.