The Social and Local Dimensions of Governance of Energy Poverty: Adaptive Responses to State Remoteness

Energy poverty is a huge social problem. Academic and policy deliberations about energy poverty focus repeatedly on the same issues: the lack of a shared definition, who is responsible for the problem, and how best to measure it through indicators. We argue that debates at EU and national level do not address the daily reality of people living in energy poverty. The preliminary findings of our ESRC funded project suggest that local actors (e.g., NGOs) make a substantial contribution to bridging the gap between top-down policy and the energy poor. We argue that these actors represent an adaptive response to the inherent limitations of state and supra-national action and, therefore, play a key role in the governance of energy poverty. In presenting this argument, we suggest, as an avenue for future research, nodal governance as a lens through which to understand the role local actors play in the governing order for tackling energy poverty. The article provides an exploratory analysis of these issues, discussed through the selection of four illustrative examples in Italy, France, Catalonia, and England.