About: energy poverty Archives

Recurring heatwaves across Europe have been most devastating for the poor. New EU institutions have a mandate to make Europe’s energy transition a just one, but this can only be done if a European Marshall plan is implemented to fight climate change and protect the vulnerable, writes Yamina Saheb.

The energy transition will hit the poor hardest unless it's balanced by a shift in taxation, says Christian Egenhofer. The EU needs to acknowledge this and get started by lowering taxes on electricity to achieve the EU’s carbon reduction goals at least cost, he argues.

Four years into the Energy Union project, it is worth taking stock of one of the flagship policies of the Juncker Commission and look into future challenges, writes Piotr Arak.

Most European countries have significant energy poverty problems and are unable to keep their citizens warm during winter. In fact, that applies as much to cooling as to heating, writes Adrian Joyce.

If the energy market fails to deliver affordable prices for those in a vulnerable situation, it should not trample people’s right to live a decent life. A way to limit harm is to avoid prices going too high, writes Monique Goyens.

Electricity prices regulated by the government are commonplace in Europe, chiefly out of concern for vulnerable consumers. But they also undermine the adoption of innovative demand-response technologies, which are key to integrate higher shares of renewables and electric cars.

Artificially low energy prices in France are one of the reasons why former state monopoly EDF loses money, says Thomas Pellerin-Carlin. Moreover, regulated prices are useless to protect vulnerable consumers from energy poverty and “almost never leads to low energy bills,” he argues.

The EU has recognised access to energy as a human right. But whether it will enforce a  disconnection safeguard remains to be seen, writes Guillaume Derivaux.

The heatwaves currently experienced in Europe should be a wake-up call to stop ignoring summer domestic energy poverty, writes Yamina Saheb.

What do Croatia’s football team and its energy efficiency programmes have in common? Experience, skill, tenacity and an inspiring amount of success, writes Adrian Joyce.

European Union legislators made progress Wednesday (23 May) on a draft EU law that sets a “trajectory” for the deployment of renewable energies in Europe and puts in place a “gap-filler” mechanism to ensure the bloc meets its 2030 energy and climate objectives.

With real estate responsible for over a third of the EU’s CO2 emissions, legislating to improve energy savings in the building stock is a low hanging fruit that our governments would be mad not to pick, argues Eliot Whittington.

Europe’s heating and cooling sector accounts for more than one third of the EU’s untapped renewable energy potential, according to one new study, while another has highlighted which countries are the worst for deaths caused with living in cold homes.

Two out of three EU countries do not measure energy poverty but a new observatory launched on Monday (29 January) should provide member states with the information they need to address a problem that could affect more than 100 million people in Europe, says the chair of the EU's Energy Poverty Observatory.

Azerbaijan, via its state energy company SOCAR, is ready to engage in Bulgaria’s gasification at its own expense. The statement was made by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of a visit by the Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov to the central Asian country.

The EU’s package has to rise to the challenge. Awareness on the causes and consequences of energy poverty has been increasing for a decade and now is the time for action, writes the Right to Energy Coalition.

Fuel poverty affects tens of millions of Europeans. Coupled with continuing subsidies for fossil fuel boilers, this means decarbonisation efforts face a real uphill struggle.

For something that blights the lives of between 50 and 125 million European citizens it is strange to discover that there is no EU-wide definition of 'energy poverty', writes Adrian Joyce.

New EU energy efficiency laws will not be dogged by the problems of the past because civil leaders and businesses have bought into the need to fight climate change, the European Commission’s Energy Union chief said yesterday (1 February).

As I write this, an elderly person is deciding whether they can afford to heat their home, a parent is choosing a warm meal over a cold bath for their child, and a household wonders if it can pay its bills. This is unacceptable, writes MEP Theresa Griffin.

An estimated 54 million Europeans suffer from energy poverty, according to the European Commission analysis, which blames rising prices, low income and energy inefficient homes for forcing people to choose between eating or heating.

With the launch of the Emergency Greece campaign, a group of doctors has decried the medical situation in the country as "apocalyptic", blaming the Troika’s crippling austerity measures. EURACTIV France reports.

Commission Vice-President Maroš Šef?ovi? unveiled the executive's plans for laying the foundations of the Energy Union, until the end of its term in 2019.

A new public-private fund hopes to bring electricity to a million homes in sub-Saharan Africa by 2025. Access to energy is one of the major factors inhibiting development in the region. EURACTIV France reports.