Energy powers communities. Healthcare workers and teachers depend on energy to heal and educate their communities. Energy keeps homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Moreover, it fuels agricultural and manufacturing production, generating food, revenue, and jobs.
Energy’s presence is not just essential—it’s lifesaving, acting as an engine for economic growth and social development. However, access to affordable, reliable, quality, safe, and environmentally sound energy services isn’t evenly distributed.
Energy poverty emerges when families either lack access to modern energy services or allocate a significant portion of their income to energy bills. Those experiencing energy poverty find themselves in a relentless cycle, unable to afford the energy essential for their health, well-being, education, and quality of life.
The Energy Efficiency Directive offered the European Union its inaugural common definition of “energy poverty.” This refers to a household’s inadequate access to vital energy services. These services, indispensable for a decent standard of living and health, include adequate heating, hot water, cooling, lighting, and the energy to power appliances. Several factors contribute to this deficiency, including affordability challenges, constrained disposable income, high energy costs, and residences with subpar energy efficiency.
Even in areas where energy seems plentiful, inefficiencies and elevated costs burden families. Over 50 million people in the European Union grapple with energy poverty. Its effects intensify during the summer and winter, when the demand and expenses for cooling and heating surge.
The repercussions of energy poverty can be severe, especially as global warming accelerates and climatic conditions become erratic. The extreme heat in Europe during the summer of 2022 resulted in the tragic loss of more than 61,000 lives. In the winter of the same year, approximately 9% of European Union inhabitants struggled to maintain warmth in their homes.