The Observatory constitutes an integral component of the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub, focusing on ongoing research efforts throughout Europe, primarily spearheaded by the academic community. Rooted in the outcomes of the EU Energy Poverty Observatory (EPOV), the precursor to the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (active between December 2016 and November 2020), its establishment was a pivotal part of the European Commission’s initiatives to tackle energy poverty across EU nations. Notably, its compilation of resources and development of national energy poverty indicators serve as crucial references for those seeking to evaluate energy poverty diagnoses at the national level or undertake the challenging task of cross-country comparisons.
The EPAH Observatory endeavors to spotlight the latest data and research findings comprising:
A national indicators dashboard housing the most recent official data at the European level.
Visit the national indicators dashboard ➔
A comprehensive publications database, open to all interested parties for submission of relevant publications.
Visit the publications database ➔
Indicators, being pivotal tools for measuring energy poverty, enable the effective capture of diverse facets of energy poverty scenarios, facilitating a comprehensive diagnosis. This interactive dashboard allows visitors to navigate through various energy poverty indicators available for EU countries, facilitating comparisons across years and nations or providing detailed data for individual countries. Launched in 2022 and updated in October 2023, the dashboard offers a practical and comprehensive visualization of quantifiable aspects of energy poverty levels across Europe, leveraging the latest EU-wide statistics.
The report titled "Energy Poverty National Indicators: Uncovering New Possibilities for Expanded Knowledge" highlights the latest updates and enhancements to energy poverty national indicators and the dashboard. These updates aim to enrich and broaden the measurement of energy poverty by incorporating additional dimensions, equipping policymakers, researchers, and practitioners with a toolkit for more comprehensive approaches. The first EPAH report, "Energy Poverty National Indicators: Insights for a More Effective Measurement," provides a complete overview of all available indicators, offering crucial information about sources, technical details, and additional insights.
- A set of local indicators, enabling municipalities to develop informed local social climate plans, track impacts, and establish goals for more cost-effective actions and greater impact.
Collaborating with the Covenant of Mayors Europe, the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub has developed a set of 56 local energy poverty indicators, identified through participatory discussions with European municipal officers and experts. 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 of 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 see your efforts' progress. Using the right impact-driven indicators allows you to assess your energy poverty projects' impact and fine-tune the efforts as you go. The Energy Poverty Advisory Hub published the Handbook on how to address energy poverty, where more details on the use of the local indicators are described and can be used when creating your local energy poverty diagnosis. You can find the 56 indicators on the Covenant of Mayors’ website as well as 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 into 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. |