Elsevier

Energy Policy

Volume 133, October 2019, 110869
Energy Policy

Structural energy poverty vulnerability and excess winter mortality in the European Union: Exploring the association between structural determinants and health

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.07.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • There are important structural energy poverty vulnerability inequalities in the EU.

  • A geographical pattern of structural energy poverty vulnerability was observed.

  • The most vulnerable countries are located in eastern and southern Europe.

  • Excess winter mortality risk is higher in countries with greater vulnerability.

  • Acting on structural determinants of energy poverty can have an impact on health.

Abstract

Energy poverty (EP) is a growing problem in the European Union (EU) that affects the population's health. EP is structurally determined by broader political and socio-economic conditions. Our aims were to analyze the configuration of these determinants in each EU-27 country through the creation of a structural energy poverty vulnerability (SEPV) index, to group countries according to their SEPV index scores, and to explore the association between SEPV and EP prevalence, and also with excess winter mortality (EWM). We created a SEPV index through seriated principal component analyses and then validated the index. We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) to group countries according to their SEPV. A Poisson regression model was fitted to analyze the association between SEPV and EWM. The final index comprised 13 indicators and showed an unequal distribution of SEPV across the EU. The HCA identified countries with high structural vulnerability (southeastern Europe) and countries with low structural vulnerability (northwestern Europe). The most vulnerable countries showed a statistically significant higher EP prevalence and risk of EWM. The SEPV index summarizes the structural determinants of EP across the EU, allows to identify geographical patterns and to study how the structural determinants of EP affect health.

Section snippets

Methods

We conducted an ecological cross-sectional study in which the analysis units were the 27 countries constituting the EU as of January 2013 (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom).

We obtained most of the indicators to create the index from Eurostat, the European

Structural energy poverty vulnerability index

After reviewing the databases, 47 indicators were included: 18 for the Labor Market and Welfare State dimension, 19 for the Housing Market and its Policies and 10 for the Energy Market and its Policies. According to the Spearman correlation analysis and the consensus of the expert group, redundant indicators were excluded and 29 indicators were retained (11 for the first dimension, 10 for the second and 8 for the third) (Appendix A describes the initial 47 variables and indicates those that

Conclusions and policy implications

This study contributes to the literature by providing an index that summarizes SEPV in the EU-27 and allows more nuanced and empirically rich comparisons across countries and analyses its geographical distribution. Moreover, this index was validated and can have different applications; one of them is the study of the impact of SEPV on public health. The index highlights the important role of the Labor Market and Welfare State as well as the wide distribution of its scores. Furthermore, the

Funding sources

The study is part of the PENSA Project (“Pobreza energética y salud desde multiples perspectivas: análisis individual, geográfico y temporal”), which received a research grant from the Carlos III Institute of Health, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, awarded on the 2015 call under the Health Strategy Action 2013–2016, within the National Research Program oriented to Societal Challenges, within the Technical, Scientific and Innovation Research National Plan 2013–2016, with reference

Declarations of interest

None.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the help provided by Carmen Trilla, expert of the Housing Market and policies dimension.

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