Lessons from last winter – fighting energy poverty and ill-health | Energy Cities web conference

The previous winter has been hard. The energy crisis has pushed a dramatic number of people into energy poverty. One poverty often comes with another, overlapping with physical and mental health problems. The situation is systematically worse for specific parts of the population: people with low-income, specific health conditions or/and those who are part of a minority. It is urgent to understand those people’s difficulties and to sustainably meet their needs in all areas of their everyday lives.

Short-term alleviation measures don’t go far enough. Structural empowerment by improving not only the homes, but also the health of vulnerable people is needed. A whole new urban program focusing on this energy poverty-health nexus needs to be invented by cities across Europe.

During this session, city experts involved in the WELLBASED project will share initial findings from their research in cities that want to tackle energy poverty and health. This includes insights into people’s daily lives this past winter and the consequences for their health. Building such an understanding of experiences of energy poverty is a crucial step towards better policy-making and effective local support schemes.

Register to the event.

AGENDA

10:00-10:03 - Welcome by Miriam Eisermann, Energy Cities

10:03-10:10 - Flashback on the winter for households in vulnerable situations – the bigger picture – national responses, Joao Pedro Gouveia, Senior Researcher, NOVA University Lisbon/EPAH

10:10-10:20 - Energy poverty and underlying health issues: initial insights from winter research in 2022/2023,  Merel Stevens, Erasmus Medical School

10:20-10:30 - Q&A with audience

10:30-11:00 - Spotlight on challenges and coping strategies in committed cities across Europe.  Format: Short presentations about cases of lived experience and key figures collected in each pilot, reaction from an EP expert of the same country. Spain: Victoria Pellicer-Sifres, Las Naves; Marta Garcia Paris, Ecoserveis (TBC); Latvia: Dr. Dina Bite, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Latvia University.

11:00-11:10 - Q&A with audience

11:10-11:20 - Incorporating health in urban (energy) policies, Elena Rocher, Las Naves First take-aways for an urban programme: short-term vs. long-term measures

11:20-11:30 - Final reaction from European Commission, Veronika Jirickova, DG ENER (TBC)