Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Reducing Fuel Poverty for Sustainable Future Development

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Affordable and Clean Energy

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

  • 22 Accesses

Definition

Fuel poverty refers to the condition of having too little money to be able to keep someone’s home warm (Cambridge Dictionary 2020). The fuel poor are those households who spend a significant portion of their income to sustain a reasonable heating regime. After a series of campaigns against “excess winter deaths” and following scholarly work of Boardman (1991), the UK’s policy statement in 2001 declared that households who need to spend more than 10% of their income to achieve satisfactory heating as well as other energy services are fuel poor.

Introduction

Energy service for cooking, heating, and lighting is one of the most basic needs for humans. Inaccessibility of such services for 2.7 billion of people severely restricts their opportunities in closing the socioeconomic gaps and constraints that they currently experience (IEA 2011). When households lack access to modern energy services for cooking/heating and electricity, they are compelled to use locally available...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bazilian M, Hobbs BF, Blyth W, MacGill I, Howells M (2011) Interactions between energy security and climate change: a focus on developing countries. Energy Policy 39:3750–3756

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bazilian M, Rogner H, Howells M, Hermann S, Arent D, Gielen D, Steduto P, Mueller A, Komor P, Tol R, Yumkella K (2011) Considering the energy, water and food nexus: Towards an integrated modelling approach. Energy Policy 39:7896–7906

    Google Scholar 

  • Biswas KW, Bryce P, Diesendorf M (2001) Model for empowering rural poor through renewable energy technologies in Bangladesh. Environ Sci Pol 4:333–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boardman B (1991) Fuel poverty: from cold homes to affordable warmth. Belhaven Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus (2020) Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/fuel-poverty. Accessed 10 Mar 2020

  • Carillo-Hermosilla J, Unruh G (2006) Technology stability and change: an integrated evolutionary approach. J Econ Issues 40:707–742

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clancy J, Ummar F, Shakya I, Kelkar G (2007) Appropriate gender-analysis tools for unpacking the gender-energy-poverty nexus. Gend Dev 15:241–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diesendorf M (2010) The base load fallacy and other fallacies disseminated by Renewable Energy Deniers, Briefing paper 16, Energy Science Coalition. Accessed from www.energyscience.org.au

  • Fan S, Gulati A, Thorat S (2008) Investment, subsidies, and pro-poor growth in rural India. Agric Econ 39:163–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs DA, Arentsen MJ (2002) Green electricity in the market place: the policy challenge. Energy Policy 30:528–538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gangopadhyay S, Ramaswami B, Wadhwa W (2005) Reducing subsidies on household fuels in India: how will it affect the poor. Energy Policy 33:2326–2336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haines A, Smith KR, Anderson D, Epstein PR, McMichael AJ, Roberts I, Wilkinson P, Woodcock J, Woods J (2007) Policies for accelerating access to clean energy, improving health, advancing development, and mitigating climate change. Lancet 370(9594):1264–1281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • International Energy Agency (IEA) (2010) World Energy Outlook 2010. International Energy Agency, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • International Energy Agency (IEA) (2011) World Energy Outlook 2011. International Energy Agency, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • International Energy Agency (IEA) (2017) World Energy Outlook 2017. International Energy Agency, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • International Energy Agency (IEA) (2018) World Energy Outlook 2018. International Energy Agency, Paris

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jain V (2006) Political economy of the electricity subsidy: evidence from Punjab. Econ Polit Wkly 41:4072–4080

    Google Scholar 

  • Joyeux R, Ripple R (2007) Household energy consumption versus income and relative standard of living: a panel approach. Energy Policy 35:50–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komvis K, Halpern J, Foster V, Wodon Q (2006) The distributional incidence of residential water and electricity subsidies. World Bank Policy Research Working paper 3878, Washington, DC, World Bank

    Google Scholar 

  • Liddell C, Morris C (2010) Fuel poverty and human health: a review of recent evidence. Energy Policy 38(6):2987–29997

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacGill I (2008) Assessing Australia’s sustainable energy technology options: key issues, uncertainties, priorities and potential choices. Asia Pac J Envir Law 11:85–100

    Google Scholar 

  • NCAER (2007) India rural infrastructure report. National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD’s report on Energy Access Outlook (2017) Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/publications/energy-access-outlook-2017-9789264285569-en.htm. Accessed 10 June 2018

  • Rehman I, Kar A, Banerjee M, Kumar P, Shardul M, Mohanty J, Hossain I (2012) Understanding the political economy and key drivers of energy access in addressing national energy access priorities and policies. Energy Policy 47:27–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rengasamy S, Devavaram J, Prasad R, Erskine A, Bala Murugan P, High C (2001) Thaan Vuzha Nilam Tharisu: the land without a farmer becomes barren. IIED, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruet J, Siddiqui MZ (2009) Shaktis Avtars: which energy for India. In: Lesourne J, Ramsay WC (eds) Energy and India’s future. Paris, IFRI

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddiqui MZ (2005) Impact of power sector reforms in Orissa on households: Evidence from NSS data. In: Paper presented at 4th Development Convention, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddiqui MZ (2007) Lessons from regulation of power sector in post reform era: a case study of Orissa. In: Singh J (ed) Regulation, institutions and the law. Social Science Press, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddiqui MZ (2017) Inequality in energy access among rural Indian households. In: Paper presented in a conference on Sustainable Environments in 21st Century India organized by New Zealand India Research Institute, Massy University, North Palmerston, March 31 to April 2

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO (2019) Retrieved from http://www.who.int/airpollution/data/household-energy-database/en/. Accessed 12 June 2018

  • World Energy Outlook (2017) Retrieved from https://www.iea.org/weo2017/. Accessed 18 June 2018

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

    Md Zakaria Siddiqui

  2. School of Management, UniSA Business School, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    A. B. M. Abdullah

  3. UniSA College, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Md Wahid Murad

Authors
  1. Md Zakaria Siddiqui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. B. M. Abdullah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Md Wahid Murad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. B. M. Abdullah .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. European School of Sustainability, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Center for Neuroscience & Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Amanda Lange Salvia

  5. International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. School of Economics, Finance and Banking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia

    Md. Mahmudul Alam Ph.D.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Siddiqui, M.Z., Abdullah, A.B.M., Murad, M.W. (2021). Reducing Fuel Poverty for Sustainable Future Development. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Affordable and Clean Energy. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71057-0_44-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71057-0_44-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71057-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71057-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Reducing Fuel Poverty for Sustainable Future Development
    Published:
    14 August 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71057-0_44-2

  2. Original

    Reducing Fuel Poverty for Sustainable Future Development
    Published:
    17 March 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71057-0_44-1

Search

Navigation