Plugging the gap between energy poverty management and the lived experience: five principles

Webinar #9 of the Energy Evaluation Academy. Speakers: Koen Straver (ECN part of TNO), Dr Lucie Middlemiss (Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds) .

View the recordings of the webinar here.

Download the slides here.

As an introduction we will elaborate on the current policy and activities in the Netherlands and the UK, to show differences and promising examples of new ideas on how to tackle energy poverty. Accordingly, we will articulate a new approach to energy poverty policy, based on bringing insights from a multi-disciplinary understanding of the lived experience of energy poverty into policy design.

We argue that understanding the lived experience of energy poverty is critical in designing appropriate policies, which are both effective and aligned with people’s day-to-day lives. In addition, the range of disciplines that examine the lived experience of energy poverty (housing, employment, education, social policy, health, energy etc.) help to give breadth to our understanding of this challenging condition.

We propose five principles for policy design, informed by a multi-disciplinary understanding of the lived experience. These principles can be applied at a range of scales (local, regional, national and super-national).