Abstract
Households need energy for everyday activities. Energy enables people to participate in society. However, access and affordability of energy are not equally distributed. If people are not able to use an appropriate amount of energy, or if energy bills push them below the poverty line, pundits phrase this phenomenon energy poverty. Energy poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon, cutting across different policy areas. This chapter scrutinizes how energy poverty can be defined, what the main drivers are, and which policies have been put in place. Internationally, there is no consensus how to measure energy poverty, nor is there comprehensive policy. Yet the debate on energy poverty touches on crucial issues of climate policy. Carbon tax initiatives will have to pay more attention to social inequality in private energy consumption if they are to be successful.
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Strünck, C. (2020). Energy Poverty. In: Knodt, M., Kemmerzell, J. (eds) Handbook of Energy Governance in Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73526-9_39-1
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