What pill against energy poverty?

Did you know that in many places your postal code determines how good or bad your health is? Social inequalities are a reality and low-income people often get to live in low-quality housing. The vicious circle gets “perfect” when poor building performance is combined with high energy prices leading to energy poverty. 11% of households in Europe struggle to sufficiently heat or cool their homes and this poses significant challenges to both, their individual and to public health. Local authorities are at the forefront of crises management and latest research may help them do better.

Action fields for local policy-makers

Tackling energy poverty needs to happen at the local level. That is why six cities across Europe, from the UK to Hungary, have spent the past four years exploring this energy-health conundrum and developing solutions for policy and practice. With funding from the European Horizon 2020 research program, they put their knowledge and ambitions in the WELLBASED project to gather evidence around the harmful consequences of energy poverty on health. Cardiovascular diseases and respiratory conditions, anxiety, depression and stress are exacerbated by energy poverty. In short: If you have any of those conditions, you are more likely to experience worse health as a result of living in a context in which you don’t have enough access to energy services.

The first step of action for each of the pilots was to define its Urban Program, i.e. a series of interventions in communities and households suffering from insufficient energy access. Actions targeted all layers of society and ranged from very personal help to changes in policy or governance. While the Spanish city of Valencia, for example, focused on very personal home energy advice and supportive measures combined with community activities, cities like Leeds in the UK or Edirne in Turkey went also for hard interventions: façade cladding and insulation in tower blocks for Leeds, brand-new coal heaters in homes of Edirne’s Roma community.

Designing the right solutions requires accurate and solid data. That is why mixed teams of researchers, civil servants and social workers used the over 1350 participants’ home visits to collect precious data about the health and energy situation of people. Data collection included home comfort parameters (temperature, humidity, CO2 levels), questionnaires on health (including mental wellbeing) and energy consumption and direct measurements of health (e.g. blood pressure). Qualitative interviews captured people’s lived experience.

Data telling the truth about energy and health of people

The results of the 18-months study are not a big bang, but they tell us a lot about the health and wellbeing impacts of home energy interventions. The international WELLBASED team found people across all six cities whose physical and mental health was affected by the lack of access to energy. This included health conditions being exacerbated by energy poverty, often associated with poor living environments, poor air quality, unbearable summer or winter temperatures and exposure to damp, cold or overheating.

The findings indicate that a significant portion of households – 60-70% – are living in conditions that negatively impact their health, such as dampness and energy bill arrears. Quantitative data revealed that, compared to someone without energy problems, being in high energy poverty means you have:

• 5x higher chances of experiencing anxiety or depression
• 3x higher chances of struggling significantly with doing your usual activities
• 3x higher chances of experiencing significant pain or discomfort

And if you are already in a somewhat fragile medical state, you are more likely to experience worse health as a result of poor energy conditions. A few interviewees who had to rely on energy-dependent life-saving technology were even having to make trade-offs between using that electricity to operate a machine to help them breathe or watch television.

During the qualitative interviews that captured people’s lived experience (listen to our podcast on that topic), the team found widespread evidence of people cutting back on energy to reduce their costs, and coping with excessive heat and cold, as well as with damp and mould. Some of the interviewed people are among the most efficient energy consumers in Europe, but efficiency comes at a cost on their wellbeing and quality of life.

Learnings for the local just transition

Quantitative and qualitative data echoes the complexity of the problem: to design effective and combined solutions for complex problems such as energy poverty we need to bring energy, health, housing and social experts together.

To anchor the health aspect in the broader energy poverty debate (and vice-versa), this data has lately been shared in-person with decision-makers from EU and international institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Public Health Alliance, Barcelona Institute for Global Health or the EU Energy Poverty Advisory Hub.

We must fill the gaps in EU Energy Poverty and Health policies as health and energy policies are often addressed separately. The health perspective, for example, is still extremely limited in official EU texts. Beyond mention as a consideration, health and health equity do not play any role of significance within the recent energy directives. Dr Maria Neira from the WHO stressed the critical importance of health as a topic strongly related to climate change. She stated: “Health must be at the heart of discussion, transition, and adaptation. (…) Transition to sustainable, clean energy is urgent since energy and health are very much interlinked.” She further emphasised that political will is essential to accelerate the transition, as “people are dying because of dirty energy.”

WELLBASED pilots and follower cities having signed the Healthy Homes Manifesto recognise the need for efficient interventions whereby invested money is improving health and energy conditions at once. Cities who want to address energy poverty through home interventions must adopt an integrated, context-sensitive approach: People appreciate interventions that recognize them and their problems. “Finally, someone cares for me.” was what one participant expressed during an interview. Combining participatory approaches ensures that people’s specific needs are addressed while fostering a sense of inclusion and empowerment.

Coping with the heat was a very central concern in several pilots. The construction of the home and its immediate environment were important in excessive summer heat conditions. Housing quality and access to decent and affordable homes is key and requires more substantial financial investment as well as tackling the current housing crisis. This means that any retrofitting project should be assessed in the light of its potential health impact and expected health improvements could condition eligibility for funding.

Energy and health advice or support are really critical, but let’s not forget that sustained efforts need to be backed by:
• Fair prices on the energy market and access to renewables for everyone (the mission of our POWER UP project)
• Affordable housing
• Defending the right to energy: People’s ability to take control over their situation, changing supplier, claiming their rights

As discussions around a Clean Industrial Deal and decarbonisation are at full speed, we must make sure this involves everyone, with equity in access to energy and health. Energy poverty and the related serious health risks are most tangible at the regional and local level, but EU and national guidelines and supportive frameworks are urgently needed. To bring residents back to comfort and wellbeing at home, it requires efficient governance mechanisms, capacity and long-term perspectives.

Watch out the Energy Cities space for local energy poverty solutions including energy communities, decarbonized heating & cooling. Join our Hubs on “fossil-free cities” and “fair economies”.

💊Explore all WELLBASED outputs on www.wellbased.eu