Abstract
This review investigates the state of the art in metrics used in energy (or fuel) and transport poverty with a view to assessing how these overlapping concepts may be unified in their measurement. Our review contributes to ongoing debates over decarbonisation, a politically sensitive and crucial aspect of the energy transition, and one that could exacerbate patterns of inequality or vulnerability. Up to 125 million people across the European Union experience the effects of energy poverty in their daily lives. A more comprehensive understanding of the breadth and depth of these conditions is therefore paramount. This review assessed 1,134 articles and critically analysed a deeper sample of 93. In terms of the use of metrics, we find that multiple indicators are better than any single metric or composite. We find work remains to be conducted in the transport poverty sphere before energy poverty metrics can be fully unified with those of transport poverty, namely the stipulation of travel standards. Without such standards, our ability to unify the metrics of both fields and potentially alleviate both conditions simultaneously is limited. The difficulties in defining necessary travel necessitate the further use of vulnerability lenses and holistic assessments focused on energy and transport services.
Highlights
Energy sits at the core of human and economic development
The Scottish Fuel Poverty Act 2019 (Scottish Parliament, 2019, p. 2) stated a household is in fuel poverty if “(a) the fuel costs necessary for the home in which members of the household live to meet the conditions set out in Section 2 i.e. the heating regime are more than 10% of the household’s adjusted net income, and (b) after deducting such fuel costs, benefits received for a care need or disability and the household’s childcare costs, the household’s remaining adjusted net income is insufficient to maintain an acceptable standard of living for members of the household”
We have seen that the fuel and energy poverty literature have been largely separate areas of study until recently, whilst transport poverty is an area of scant research
Summary
Energy sits at the core of human and economic development. It en ables the adequate illumination of homes, the proper and healthy cooking of food, the needed pumping of groundwater for food security, the refrigeration of vaccines, and many other services that are essential to even a very basic standard of living. Given the high range of estimates for the extent and depth of energy and transport poverty, we believe that how they are measured poses a serious concern for policy makers and the academy alike: the extent and depth of each issue will affect the extent and depth of proposed solutions in the built environment and policy spheres In this state of the art review, we undertake an extensive bibliometric and content analysis of 1,134 papers, analysing a deep sample of 93 papers and items of grey literature. These include, for instance, restricted access to employment, increased likeli hood of exposure to air pollution, and increased difficulties faced by the disabled This theme of disadvantage or exclusion was continued by the social exclusion unit, stating that people may find services (work, learning, healthcare etc.) inaccessible as a result of social exclusion, that transport disadvantage can seriously compound this social exclusion, and that the negative externalities of road traffic disproportionately impact those who already face social exclusion (Social Exclusion Unit, 2003). Key studies were identified and their content analysed, alongside prominent grey literature in each area
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
