Similar to the national indicators on energy poverty, the local indicators is considered an essential tool for diagnosing local energy poverty. A diagnosis that includes energy poverty indicators, enables a municipality to develop informed based local social climate plans and track impact and set goals leading to more cost-effective actions and an increased impact.
The Energy Poverty Advisory Hub collaborated with the Covenant of Mayors Office Europe in developing a set of local indicators.
To define a local indicator that is representative, measurable and impact oriented is often a challenge and may require a great deal of work. In order to fast-forward these discussions in municipalties across Europe EPAH and the Covenant of Mayors have in collaboration created a series of 56 local energy poverty indicators. These indicators have been discussed and confirmed relevant by European municipal officers through a participatory approach involving the Covenant community of local authorities and experts in the field.
It's recommended to start with them and identify which ones, among all them, can be relevant to characterize your specific local energy poverty and a way for you to monitor whether the challenges are growing or if you are on track to eradicate energy poverty in your municipality. Municipalities can use the 56 indicators as if they were products in a shop. Shop responsibly and select only in the ones you need and can afford to maintain since indicators show their real value the second time you gather information for them and you see the progress of your efforts. Using the right impact driven indicators allow you to assess the impact of your energy poverty projects and fine tune the efforts as you go.
The Energy Poverty Advisory Hub published the first Handbook out of three on how to address energy poverty, where more details on the use of the local indicators is described and can be used when creating your local energy poverty diagnosis.
You can already find the 56 indicators below here and on the Covenant of Mayors’ website, you can find more information on how to use the indicators as part of the planning of your Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) using the online planning and reporting tool ‘My Covenant’.
The local energy poverty indicators are grouped in 6 Macro Areas:
| Climate | As our energy consumption is highly dependent on the weather, a change in the climate condition is likely to expose more households to the risk of presenting energy poverty. When the outside temperatures deviate significantly from the comfortable indoor temperatures they were built for this may require an increase of energy consumption to balance heat/cold difference. |
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| Facilities/housing | The status of the houses both in a qualitative way and as perceived by its inhabitants play an important role in the identification of energy poverty. Poor levels of dwellings’ energy efficiency is one of the three main causes of energy poverty. This macro area covers both energy efficiency the quality of appliances and the lighting system. |
| Mobility | To be, or being at risk of becoming, energy poor is also related to the mobility of citizens. A part from active mobility (cycling and walking), mobility is dependent on energy and increasing energy prices will therefore exacerbate the accessibility of the energy poor leaving them further challenged in accessing essential services, such as healthcare or education while also limit their geographical range for their job opportunities. |
| Socio-economic aspects | Information about the socio-economical perspective of the local population is directly connected with the identification and monitoring of energy poverty and refers to aspects like income and energy prices, educational levels and type of occupation. Collecting these indicators can provide an insightful characterization of citizens and their resilience towards energy poverty. |
| Policy and regulatory framework | A dynamic and responsive regulatory framework that includes energy poverty can be essential to mainstream good practices and ensure an enabling environment that incentivises a focus on energy poverty and allow for easy administration for implementation. |
| Participation and awareness raising | An important component of every action implemented is to make sure that the target audience, beneficiaries and all key stakeholders are properly outreached and informed about what is happening and all the different options available to them. |