Energy poverty in developing countries: A review of the concept and its measurements

Abstract

This paper presents a meta-narrative review of the concept and measurements of energy poverty in developing countries. The literature survey was conducted using the Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, and Analysis (SALSA) and snowballing methods. Three academic databases, including Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Scopus, were searched for studies published in English from 1970 to 2021 on the topic of energy poverty in developing countries. The review found that many definitions are provided to explain the concept of energy poverty due to the differences between countries in terms of climate and season, household preferences, accommodating home standards, and social and cultural beliefs. The lack of generally accepted definition of energy poverty has led to confusion between the concepts of energy poverty and fuel poverty. Both concepts apply to the problem of energy consumption in residential sector, but they have similitudes and differences. Three categories of indicators are used for communicating energy poverty issues at the local, national and global levels: single indicators, dashboard indicators, and composite indices. Each approach has potential advantages and limitations. The composite indices are more generally applied because of their capacity to aggregate various dimensions of energy poverty and facilitate benchmarking between countries. However, the scarcity of data prevents the widespread use of the measurements of energy poverty. Consequently, it contributes to the delay in assessing the implementation of energy policy to achieve the sustainable development goal of eradicating energy poverty in developing countries.