[09.03.21] Guest article-30 milllion people face energy poverty in Europe: The EU needs a political strategy to end this – Policy paper

By EMILIE MAGDALINSKI,  MARIE DELAIR THOMAS PELLERIN-CARLIN, Jacques Delors Energy Centre, Paris 

This policy paper suggests that the EU and its Member States should embrace a political strategy that makes the objective of lifting all Europeans from energy poverty a key com-ponent of the European Green Deal.

By focusing first on providing support to energy-poor European families, this paper argues that EU policy makers can adopt tangible decisions that show, in a very concrete manner, that the European Green Deal and the European Pillar of Social Rights are also endeavours to improve the European way of life, starting with the millions of European families who currently cannot properly heat their homes.

This should constitute a first political step towards addressing other facets of energy poverty: being unable to cool one’s home during heatwaves, and having no proper access to daily transport services.  

Download the full paper here: https://www.institutdelors.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PP259_210202_Precarite-energetique_Magdalinski_EN-1.pdf 

You can also have a look at the infographics outlining how to tackle energy poverty, by the Jacques Delors Energy Centre

Graphic Design : Marjolaine Bergonnier 

Credit: Photo by Stefano Pollio via Unsplash