The project aims to examine the effect of climate change and extreme weather events on fuel poverty and socio-demographic inequalities in fuel affordability. We will use a population based longitudinal dataset spanning the first 20 years of this Century in Australia, along with weather data, to investigate spatial and temporal differences in fuel affordability. Understanding how climate change affects fuel poverty and who is at risk as a consequence is imperative to the development of equitable adaptation and mitigation strategies. Our project will generate equity informed information on energy poverty, health and climate change to directly meet this gap.
When I received the news from the FPRN that my research proposal has been awarded research funding, I was incredibly excited and grateful. It allows me to bring the needed attention to the impact of climate change on inequalities in fuel affordability in Australia, which in recent years has felt the harsh impacts of anthropogenic global warming.