Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TRANSFAIR (Unfair transitions? A critical examination low-carbon energy pathways in the EU from a domestic energy vulnerability perspective)
Reporting period: 2018-03-15 to 2020-03-14
Sustainable energy transitions are bringing about a fundamental reorganisation in the way societies capture and use energy and open the door for deeper structural transformations of economies and societies. While significant synergies exist between climate change mitigation and inequality reduction goals, disadvantaged, vulnerable population segments risk being ‘left behind’ or penalised by the low-carbon transition. The relevance of this predicament is evidenced by the fact that more than 50 million households in the EU struggle to attain adequate warmth at home or pay their utility bills on time. These are conditions typically indicating domestic energy (or fuel) poverty, i.e. a household’s inability to secure socially- and materially-needed levels of energy services in the home On top of those, a large but undetermined number of EU citizens does not have a guaranteed access to energy as they are indebted, disconnected, irregularly connected or depend of pre-purchased forms of domestic energy Such cases demonstrate high levels of precariousness among Europe’s energy poor and challenge modernist rhetoric about universal access to high quality energy sources in developed countries.
The ongoing transformation of energy systems unfolds against this complex, uneven landscape. Given the multiple possible outcomes that can be envisioned, TRANSFAIR intended to investigate to what extent low-carbon transitions in the EU operate merely as a material and technological shift without substantially challenging the institutional and political foundations of energy provision frameworks. Consequently, the initial aim of the TRANSFAIR research was to assess the ways in which transitions may (or not) be reproducing and reinforcing existing domestic energy-related inequalities and vulnerabilities as evidenced by current energy poverty rates in Member States.
The ongoing transformation of energy systems unfolds against this complex, uneven landscape. Given the multiple possible outcomes that can be envisioned, TRANSFAIR intended to investigate to what extent low-carbon transitions in the EU operate merely as a material and technological shift without substantially challenging the institutional and political foundations of energy provision frameworks. Consequently, the initial aim of the TRANSFAIR research was to assess the ways in which transitions may (or not) be reproducing and reinforcing existing domestic energy-related inequalities and vulnerabilities as evidenced by current energy poverty rates in Member States.
TRANSFAIR carried out a multi-sited research primarily relying on qualitative data collection methods applied to purposely pre-selected cases. Its two main sites were Spain (Barcelona and its metropolitan region) and Hungary (Budapest and other locations in Central and Southern Hungary). The main thematic focus of the more 50 semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted were household energy debt, disconnections, irregular connections, pre-payment meters and other forms of pre-paid energy leading to self-disconnection. Data collection paid special attention to the voices of underrepresented social segments and ‘non-academic others’ and project outputs prioritise the views and concerns of the energy poor while explicitly acknowledging the bias this may introduce. The evidence collected in Hungary will be published in several papers (currently in the pipeline) on the lived experiences of precariousness and disconnection across Hungary and Spain, on prepayment meters as disciplinary technologies in Hungary, and on energy poverty-motivated transformative collective action in Barcelona.
As part of his training at the host institution, the Fellow attended the 2018 Summer School ‘Degrowth and Environmental Justice’ and sessions of ICTA-UAB’s Master's Degree in Political Ecology, Degrowth and Environmental Justice in the autumn-winter term of 2018. The Fellow also contributed to the workshop ‘Climate in Transition: An Interdisciplinary Interrogation of Global Environmental Change’ and completed a 6-week stay at the Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Additional activities resulting in academic publications include an ENGAGER COST Action writing retreat and co-authored (Sareen et al., 2020); a collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Barcelona (Recalde et al. 2019); and an ongoing collaboration with the Polish Academic of Science on domestic heat transitions (Frankowski and Tirado Herrero, forthcoming).
The Fellow also led and co-organised the summer school ‘Mobilising data for energy poverty research and action’ (Barcelona, 3-7 June 2019) in collaboration with the ENGAGER COST Action.
As part of his training at the host institution, the Fellow attended the 2018 Summer School ‘Degrowth and Environmental Justice’ and sessions of ICTA-UAB’s Master's Degree in Political Ecology, Degrowth and Environmental Justice in the autumn-winter term of 2018. The Fellow also contributed to the workshop ‘Climate in Transition: An Interdisciplinary Interrogation of Global Environmental Change’ and completed a 6-week stay at the Institute of Public Goods and Policies (IPP) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Additional activities resulting in academic publications include an ENGAGER COST Action writing retreat and co-authored (Sareen et al., 2020); a collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Barcelona (Recalde et al. 2019); and an ongoing collaboration with the Polish Academic of Science on domestic heat transitions (Frankowski and Tirado Herrero, forthcoming).
The Fellow also led and co-organised the summer school ‘Mobilising data for energy poverty research and action’ (Barcelona, 3-7 June 2019) in collaboration with the ENGAGER COST Action.
The TRANSFAIR research builds upon the hypothesis that a large-scale deployment of low-carbon solutions disregarding pre-existing socio-economic and material inequalities will result in transitions having regressive effects, deepening disparities and reinforcing or creating new vulnerabilities. This notion was explored in Hungary and Spain as designated case study countries in line with previous research that identified Southern, Central and Eastern Europe as ‘peripheral’ EU regions more severely affected by energy poverty.
The Spanish case study found out that nearly one million people in Spain – 100,000 in Catalonia – lost access to their regular supply of domestic energy due to household financial difficulties in 2016. Taking action against this severe form of energy poverty, the Alliance against Energy poverty (Alianza contra la Pobreza Energética, APE) was launched in Barcelona in February 2014 under the premise of fighting for access to basic supplies such as energy and water as a ‘fundamental human right’. TRANSFAIR research has highlighted the ways in which APE gives voice to the energy poor and provides a platform for their political engagement. A milestone of their political action is Law 24/2015 – a unique piece of legislation that bans supply disconnections of vulnerable households in Catalonia and started off as a people’s legislative initiative led by the Alliance. The TRANSFAIR research found that APE’s transformative collective action challenges pre-established ‘truths’ such as the notion of energy poverty being a matter of individual failure rather than the consequence of structural inequalities; or the belief that in EU countries access to energy services is universal. It also offers ‘afectadas’ alternative, radical understanding of their living conditions and, ultimately, transforms their very experience of domestic energy deprivation.
In Hungary, TRANSFAIR has contributed to existing knowledge about energy justice by exploring how pre-payment meters result in a two-tier segmentation of the domestic electricity provision system and in an ‘underclass’ of precarious citizens who can only use the energy they are able to pre-purchase. The deployment of this ‘disciplinary technology’ creates poorly recognized forms of energy poverty that are in open contradiction with from a ‘right to energy’ perspective. This negative outcome goes hand in hand with evidence showing how, in the Hungarian context, pre-payment meters are the only way through which households in severe energy precarity are allowed to leave behind a traumatic past of arrears, accumulated debts and irregular connections. The widespread presence of pre-payment meters in Hungary (installed in around 100,000 households as of early 2020) and in other EU countries (e.g. Belgium, Ireland and Austria) underlines the timeliness and potential impact of this strand of the TRANSFAIR research.
The TRANSFAIR research features in the Energy Policy and Global Transitions journals. It has been disseminated in national and international fora such as the Annual International Conference of the RGS-IBG, the Fifth Energy and Society Conference, the 11th International Forum on Urbanism (IFOU), the 1st Spanish National Forum and the 2nd Energy Poverty Conference of Catalonia.
The Spanish case study found out that nearly one million people in Spain – 100,000 in Catalonia – lost access to their regular supply of domestic energy due to household financial difficulties in 2016. Taking action against this severe form of energy poverty, the Alliance against Energy poverty (Alianza contra la Pobreza Energética, APE) was launched in Barcelona in February 2014 under the premise of fighting for access to basic supplies such as energy and water as a ‘fundamental human right’. TRANSFAIR research has highlighted the ways in which APE gives voice to the energy poor and provides a platform for their political engagement. A milestone of their political action is Law 24/2015 – a unique piece of legislation that bans supply disconnections of vulnerable households in Catalonia and started off as a people’s legislative initiative led by the Alliance. The TRANSFAIR research found that APE’s transformative collective action challenges pre-established ‘truths’ such as the notion of energy poverty being a matter of individual failure rather than the consequence of structural inequalities; or the belief that in EU countries access to energy services is universal. It also offers ‘afectadas’ alternative, radical understanding of their living conditions and, ultimately, transforms their very experience of domestic energy deprivation.
In Hungary, TRANSFAIR has contributed to existing knowledge about energy justice by exploring how pre-payment meters result in a two-tier segmentation of the domestic electricity provision system and in an ‘underclass’ of precarious citizens who can only use the energy they are able to pre-purchase. The deployment of this ‘disciplinary technology’ creates poorly recognized forms of energy poverty that are in open contradiction with from a ‘right to energy’ perspective. This negative outcome goes hand in hand with evidence showing how, in the Hungarian context, pre-payment meters are the only way through which households in severe energy precarity are allowed to leave behind a traumatic past of arrears, accumulated debts and irregular connections. The widespread presence of pre-payment meters in Hungary (installed in around 100,000 households as of early 2020) and in other EU countries (e.g. Belgium, Ireland and Austria) underlines the timeliness and potential impact of this strand of the TRANSFAIR research.
The TRANSFAIR research features in the Energy Policy and Global Transitions journals. It has been disseminated in national and international fora such as the Annual International Conference of the RGS-IBG, the Fifth Energy and Society Conference, the 11th International Forum on Urbanism (IFOU), the 1st Spanish National Forum and the 2nd Energy Poverty Conference of Catalonia.