FPRN bulletin – 15th September 2022


14 September 2022

Welcome to our email bulletin.

The FPRN email bulletin is a semi-regular email highlighting a handpicked selection of recently published research and other knowledge outputs in the area of fuel/energy poverty from around the world. The aim is to share this emerging knowledge more widely and to help generate discussion across the network.

If you have any issues accessing the below articles, or you have articles, research or other information we could share, please contact newsletter@fuelpovertyresearch.net

Rising cost of living in the UK (pdf)
Brigid Francis-Devine; Paul Bolton; Matthew Keep; Daniel Harari (2022)
 Report  Open Access 

This briefing from the UK Government gives an overview of rising prices, particularly food, energy and fuel prices, including the effect of the conflict in Ukraine. It outlines Government support as well as how rising prices, interest rates and other policies will affect household budgets.

‘The reduction of fuel poverty may be lost in the rush to decarbonise’: Six research risks at the intersection of fuel poverty, climate change and decarbonisation (pdf)
Graeme Sherriff; Danielle Butler; Philip Brown (2022)
 Academic Paper  Open Access 

This paper presents outcomes of a Delphi study with a wide range of researchers and stakeholders engaged with energy justice research and policy development. The authors identify a set of six risks that inform the development of a research agenda towards a just transition. These risks relate to the prominence of decarbonisation subsuming fuel poverty or detracting from the need for fuel poverty alleviation; the importance of fuel poverty research anticipating climate impacts; the pitfalls for vulnerable people of a transition to electric heating and other technologies; the potential for renewable energy to be costly and excluding; as well as the need to be mindful of existing inequalities and to be sensitive in our treatment of energy practices.

Local area crime and energy poverty (pdf)
Sefa Awaworyi Churchill; Russell Smyth (2022)
 Academic Paper  Open Access 

This paper explores longitudinal data at the household level with local area crime rates to estimate the causal effect of local area crime on the probability of being in energy poverty. The analysis finds that a standard deviation increase in crime rate causes a 4-5 per cent increase in the likelihood of being in energy poverty.

Implications of poorly designed climate policy on energy poverty: Global reflections on the current surge in energy prices (website)
Fateh Belaïd (2022)
 Academic Paper  Open Access 

In this paper the authors examine the impact of the energy-price boom on the state of energy poverty in Europe. This paper highlights how energy prices and the green transition may exacerbate the energy poverty trap in Europe. The authors argue that climate policies must go hand-in-hand with inequality and energy poverty mitigation to improve outcomes more broadly.

Energy Justice and Re-Balancing the Energy Policy Trilemma in the EU (pdf)
Sampson Eirini (2022)
 Report  Open Access 

This Master’s thesis explores how a justice perspective might re-balance the energy policy trilemma faced in the European Union and the potential to enhance energy (in)justices across the EU from solar energy. The research there are some potential opportunities in energy justice re-balancing but there remains several ‘invisible’ injustices are arising in the energy transition which need to be addressed.

We’re also producing a special issue of the journal People, Policy and Place on Decarbonisation and Energy Poverty. Seven articles have already been published and more will follow soon.

This email newsletter is produced by the Fuel Poverty Research Network. For more news and events visit our website.