Addressing energy poverty through technological and governance innovation

Abstract

Abstract Background Energy poverty has gained much traction over the last decades, holding both high multidisciplinary conceptual value, but also profound implications from a social policy perspective, being closely linked to the quality of life and wellbeing. The goal of our study is to evaluate recent measures aimed at tackling energy poverty in Europe by analysing the extent to which they are innovative on the technological and governance dimensions. We do so by building an analytical tool which combines evaluation criteria along the two dimensions and by employing it for the analysis of twenty measures designed and employed in ten European countries, aimed at tackling energy poverty, selected with the support of an expert panel. Results We identify three types of innovative measures aimed at alleviating energy poverty: 1) measures with high technological scores, 2) measures with high governance scores, and 3) measures with high scores on both axes. The most successful measures have a clear goal of behaviour change. They incorporate different actors in sustainable partnerships and implement monitoring tools throughout the process. These are complementary to incorporating new technologies into the domestic sphere and promoting consumer awareness and consumption pattern transformation. Conclusions Our findings allow for a better perspective on the shape innovation takes in the context of energy poverty policies. Our research confirms that “innovation” is context-dependent and that the introduction of technological innovations has to be examined within the complexity of political, institutional and cultural context.