Energy Poverty Policy Landscape: An Overview of Existing Policies in Europe

• In Event: Energy and Environmental Policy in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This paper is aimed to be an exploratory work of the current policies to tackle energy poverty in Europe, in all government levels (local, regional, national and European). The specific academic literature shows that there is a gap in the literature about the ‘typology’ of policies addressing energy inequalities that have been implemented in Europe. The main objective of the paper is categorising current energy poverty policies and defining them according to their policy approach to the phenomenon.

The research hypothesis is that the major part of the current policies are reactive policies with a limited scope and impact on the drivers of energy inequalities. This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring from a general perspective what is the current policy landscape and what are the rising trends. Case studies have been long established in recent years detailed analysis of specific policies to tackle energy poverty. Despite this fact, there is no research trying to describe and understand the big picture of policies to tackle energy poverty in Europe.

The study uses quantitative analysis in order to gain insights into the general characteristics of policies in Europe. The sample of policies analysed are policies included in the European Observatory on Energy Poverty (EPOV) measures database. This database contains 288 policies that incorporate as a main objective combating energy poverty. Descriptive data were generated for all variables. We’d also explore the relation and connection between different groups of variables through a bivariate analysis model.

The results show regularities and allow us to cluster the existing energy poverty policies in three types: reactive, preventive and strategic policies addressing energy poverty. We discuss the results in order to demonstrate that policy-makers need to advance towards strategic policies to tackle the phenomenon of energy inequalities.

Author

• Anaïs Varo, University of Girona