Energy poverty affects the quality of life on many different levels.
Year 2024 has started very cold in Finland. Newspapers have written about energy prices and surviving in a cold home (HS 5.1.). However, the writings have not openly talked about energy poverty, even though it is exactly that phenomenon.
English speaking term fuel poverty was developed in Britain more than 25 years ago to describe households where more than ten percent of the income goes to pay the home's energy bills. Since then term energy poverty has been used in several countries to describe how households, for one reason or another, do not have the necessary energy services for heating, cooling and the use of various electrical appliances. Energy poverty is often caused by high energy prices, but also by the availability of energy services. In some contexts, for example, poor infrastructure affects how well the home can be kept warm enough.
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Energy poverty stigmatizes and makes many people feel ashamed.
Energy poverty affects the quality of life on many different levels. People who live in cold and damp homes are at risk of respiratory diseases. The constant cold at home taxes both physical and mental health. It also affects children's ability to learn when there is no warm place at home to do homework.
Energy poverty stigmatizes and makes many people feel ashamed. In the worst cases, this problem can even lead to deaths. For example, in England and Wales, more than 4,000 people died in 2022 due to cold homes.
In energy poverty living people have to make difficult choices every day regarding housing and different forms of energy use. Research has shown that daily choices are particularly related to whether to open the radiators or make hot food, whether to wash clothes or take a shower, and whether to heat the whole home or just one or two rooms for one family. People often have to regulate many different things at once, which can lead to a constant state of stress.
It is also important to note that many live in energy poverty unwittingly, especially if they are stuck with poor infrastructure, such as energy-inefficient homes that are difficult to keep warm. Research data from other countries has also shown that often those who are already in an unequal social position are also at greater risk of energy poverty.
To energy poverty there are solutions, starting with home energy renovations. Many different ways are needed to improve the matter, but the first is to identify the problem and say it out loud. Hopefully Finland, the welfare state and the happiest country in the world, will also start talking about energy poverty by its proper name.
It is also time to pay more attention to the long-term consequences of energy poverty, especially in terms of children's learning and general well-being.
Mari Martiskainen
Professor of Energy and Society
University of Sussex, UK
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