When looking at the energy transition, it becomes apparent that those who would benefit from it most – because they cannot pay their energy bills, and/or live in a house with a bad energy label or social housing – are too often the last people afforded the opportunity to take part in it.
When Russia invaded Ukraine and the energy prices surged dramatically, the struggle to pay enormous energy bills as a result of badly insulated housing stock became a lot more common and thus attracted more attention to what is called “energy poverty,” when in fact it had been a problem for much longer. Working together with the Gemeente Rotterdam, we interviewed both those living in energy poverty in Rotterdam, as well as city officials, housing corporations, and energy coaches to better understand how energy poverty is currently dealt with and how different actors in the city try to bring the energy transition to those who cannot afford expensive retrofits or live in social housing. The premise of this study, which investigates the energy transition in the Netherlands through looking at the drivers and effects of energy poverty in Rotterdam, asks what are the barriers to achieving a just energy transition, and what would it take to overcome intractable buck-passing?
We tried to shed some light on the (systemic) barriers to tackling a problem that is interconnected with a lot of other societal issues and thus faces a fragmented landscape of actors that want to alleviate it. “This research has once again shown me that the way we tackle issues nowadays is too often narrow and short-sighted,” comments Luisa Zabel, the lead-author of the study. “Our current economic, political and societal systems are geared towards short-term successes and therefore structurally prioritize quick-wins over systematic transitions. We definitely need to change that and I hope that this article can contribute a bit to that process.” Due to the complexity of the issue, many different actors are required to collaborate: the people living in energy poverty have to track down the appropriate resources and agencies to upgrade their accommodation, energy coaches have to be trained and equipped with the skills and knowledge to support those in need, housing companies need to invest into their housing stock, municipalities have to create networks and opportunities that make the energy transition accessible for everyone, and national funding has to incentivize this investment that will pay generous dividends in the long-run but requires state support to get it started. Energy payment vouchers, which have been suggested as a solution to the energy crisis during the energy price surge, are a mere band aid to a problem that reaches much deeper and requires a structured approach.
Solutions that target insulation as the real issue, for example, would help future generations too. But adequately retrofitting housing, without passing on all the costs to renters (either forcing them out of their homes, or creating stress from higher fees), would require the state and housing corporations to rethink their ways of working, expand their planning horizons, and move towards structural collaboration with each other and social organizations that are already active in the respective neighborhoods addressed.
Beyond the research activities to write the journal article, we also organized two workshops around energy poverty: One with academic organizations working on these issues such as TNO; and another with the relevant actors themselves – those living in energy poverty, energy coaches, housing corporation representatives, staff from the Gemeente Rotterdam, and other community stakeholders. Both these workshops aimed at exploring how to overcome the identified structural issues preventing a just energy transition, with the stakeholders workshop including a thought experiment where participants were asked to look at the problem from each other’s position, and given a chance to voice their expectations towards the other stakeholders to facilitate better coordination around the just energy transition.
Since we submitted our report to the Gemeente, energy coaches (Energieklussers) continue to be on the frontlines, helping those worst off from the dangers of energy poverty help insulate where they can, providing gains up to 20% for the more than 20,000 households they have served. Some housing companies (Woningcorporaties) are also now investing in insulation, higher quality double- and triple-paned windows, and allowing the hook-ups from solar panels to benefit individual apartment electricity meters. But it is clear that this is also a national issue that requires national coordination and funding to upgrade housing stock to an A energy rating, especially for those who have the least means to attain it on their own. The TNO has also conducted additional research which corroborates our finding that it is cheaper for the Dutch government in many cases to simply invest in housing upgrades than to pay year-over-year subsidies to those living in energy poverty who cannot pay their energy bills. Solving energy poverty as part of a just energy transition will mean upfront renovations bringing about long-term energy savings and reduced energy expenditures. Our research and others’ makes clear that this is a collective action problem requiring collective solutions.
This project has received funding from the Erasmus Initative Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity and the Erasmus Trustfonds.
- Researcher
- Assistant professor