Filling in the gaps from the bottom up: Energy justice guidelines for European Union energy poverty policy

Abstract

Energy justice can provide a lens for assessing energy policies taking place in socio-technical systems. Although energy justice is a policy priority in the EU, in 2023, 10.6 % of the EU population were unable to keep their home adequately warm and around 7 % of the EU population had arrears on their utility bills. EU policies strive to tackle energy poverty, however, due to its complexity, policies may fall short or even inadvertently exacerbate existing injustices. There is hence a need for improved understanding of the socio-technical factors contributing to the injustice of energy poverty, considering the specificities of each context. There is also no formal assessment framework for energy justice in the EU, despite the fact that a just transition is a policy priority. Current energy justice assessment frameworks are criticised for being too difficult to operationalise or too top-down. We aim to address some of these shortcomings by applying a participatory bottom-up approach, incorporating the Capability Approach, in order to lay the foundations for future, context-sensitive assessments in the EU. We carry out a qualitative analysis that explores the conceptualisation of energy justice according to key energy system actors and householders, who participated in EU-funded energy poverty projects. From this, we derive guideline energy justice criteria, in the context of energy poverty. Our findings may prove useful for policy-makers when designing or assessing R&I calls relating to energy poverty and the approach could be re-applied in other energy poverty policy contexts.