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SBi Lab raises awareness about energy poverty

Dr Nicola Willand explained the concept of energy poverty and why it matters at the recent Melbourne Forum. The Melbourne Forum is a consortium of government and leading built-environment industry bodies that promotes sustainability in the commercial built environment and is facilitated by the Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH). The event on 25 June was chaired by Associate Professor Priya Rajagopalan and attracted a diversity of participants including architects, engineers, students, building and facility managers, project managers, state and local governments, utility providers, sustainability practitioners, financiers and tenants. Dr Willand’s talk was accompanied by presentations by Kerry Connors on how Energy Consumers Australia is assisting consumers and Michelle Burton, Sustainability Victoria, on the Latrobe Valley Home Energy Upgrade Program.

Energy poverty links energy, equity, housing and health. Energy poverty may be defined as the lack of access to affordable, renewable and reliable essential energy services circles (Bouzarovski, Petrova & Tirado-Herrero 2014; UN 2019).  As energy poverty may be a health risk, is often hidden and likely to spread, better public understanding and collaboration among sectors is needed to alleviate the problem.

In Australia, low income households, renters, older people, people with a chronic illness, singles, single parents and large families are more likely to pay a disproportionately large share of their income on energy bills or to be unable to heat or cool their home (ACOSS, Brotherhood of St Laurence & ANU Centre for Social Research & Methods 2018; Azpitarte, Johnson & Sullivan 2015). Cold homes can cause mould and dampness, exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses and lead to avoidable winter deaths. Homes that are too hot may lead to heat stress and death, too. Energy hardship may also cause mental health problems, when the fear of the next bill causes anxiety, and when people feel a lack of control over their own home. Energy stress may also compromise social functioning, when householders start curbing their own social or their children’s school activities (Chester 2013).

Dr Willand said that “since Australia has signed the Paris Agreement, we have a moral obligation to look after vulnerable people in our shift towards a lower carbon future.” In a system that relies on self-identification and self-initiative, people who obscure their difficulties or have limited capabilities to change the quality of their home, their energy practices or energy contracts, may be disadvantaged and vulnerable (Willand & Horne 2018). As energy prices are increasing at a higher rate than income, energy stress is likely to increase. Energy concessions differ among the states (Chester 2013), and there is concern that retrofit subsidies may not reach those most at risk.

Dr Willand, a member of the PCPM SBi Lab, recently led a study investigated how energy support could be integrated into the Care at Home system. The proposed model shows how leveraging trust in care services may facilitate better access to energy support for older Australians.

The podcast of Dr Willand’s talk is available here: https://soundcloud.com/airahaustralia/airah-on-air-episode-7-energy-poverty-and-why-it-matters-melbourne-forum

Author: Dr Nicola Willand, Lecturer, PCPM

References

ACOSS, Brotherhood of St Laurence & ANU Centre for Social Research & Methods 2018, Energy Stressed in Australia, Australian Council of Social Service, Strawberry Hills, NSW.

Azpitarte, F, Johnson, V & Sullivan, D 2015, Fuel poverty, household income and energy

spending. An empirical analysis for Australia using HILDA data, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Fitzroy.

Bouzarovski, S, Petrova, S & Tirado-Herrero, S 2014, From Fuel Poverty to Energy Vulnerability: The Importance of Services, Needs and Practices, University of Sussex, Sussex.

Chester, L 2013, The Impacts and Consequences for Low-Income Australian Households of Rising Energy Prices, University of Sydney, Sydney.

UN 2019, Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, United Nations Statistics Division, viewed 22 June 2019, <https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2017/goal-07/&gt;.

Willand, N & Horne, R 2018, ‘“They are grinding us into the ground” – The lived experience of energy (in)justice amongst low-income older households’, Applied Energy, vol. 226, pp. 61-70.

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