3172 - Conceptual Frameworks and New Frontiers in Energy Justice: From Macro to Micro Levels

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Description

Energy poverty, defined as a lack of access to electricity and dependence on traditional use of biomass for cooking and heating, remains an enduring global problem. Energy poverty has long term effects on health, disproportionately impacts women and children, harms the environment, and thwarts income generation all while structural elements in the global energy market sustain energy poverty. Approximately 1.4 billion people still lived without electricity in 2009, a further one billion had access only to intermittent or unreliable electricity networks, and an additional 2.7 billion people depended entirely on wood, charcoal, dung, and solid fuels for their domestic energy needs. Fifty–five percent of those without access to electricity, as well as 72.3% of those dependent on traditional fuels, reside in Asia. Greater attention on the specific technological and planning challenges facing energy-deprived developing economies is required in order to improve energy policy-making and development assistance practice. As energy demands rise in developed countries, so does the burden of associated energy costs upon low-income households. Low-income households represent an important, but often-neglected, segment of the residential energy sector in some countries, such as the U.S. This panel introduces the theme relating to energy poverty, energy justice, human well-being and policy implication in developing countries and low-income households’ energy behaviors in developed countries. Importantly, this panel will discuss the research integration between the measurement levels of micro (e.g., individual social-psychological factors) and macro (e.g., system and structure).

Sub Unit

• Special Sessions

Session Organizer

• Chien-fei Chen, University of Tennessee

Presider

• Emily Huddart Kennedy, Washington State University

Individual Presentations

• Energy Poverty, Energy Justice and Policy Implication - Benjamin K. Sovacool, University of Sussex

• Inequality, Poverty, and the Energy Intensity of Human Well-being - Andrew K. Jorgenson, Boston College; Orla Kelly, Boston College

• Social-psychological and Contextual Factors Affecting Low-income Households’ Energy Behaviors: An Interdisciplinary Approach - Chien-fei Chen, University of Tennessee

• Green Consumption and Social Status - Christine Horne, Washington State University; Emily Huddart Kennedy, Washington State University

Discussant

• Thomas M. Dietz, Michigan State University