XClose

UCL Energy Institute

Home
Menu

Fuel poverty and invisible energy policy – UCL Energy Seminar

05 February 2019, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm

High-rise apartment block - Photo by Phil Pearson on Unsplash

Dr Catherine Butler of the University of Exeter will talk about her research into interrelations between energy vulnerability and poverty.

Event Information

Open to

All

Organiser

UCL Energy Institute

Location

Room 225, Central House
14 Upper Woburn Place
London
WC1H 0NN
United Kingdom

Seminar summary

Fuel poverty is recognised as a distinct social justice problem in the UK. However, the ways in which it is framed and addressed by government policy have increasingly come under academic scrutiny. In particular, research has highlighted its narrow framing as a problem of technical efficiency and adequate space heating, raising concern about the lack of attention given to wider structural issues and other energy uses that are essential for people’s wellbeing and social participation (e.g. Middlemiss, 2016; Simcock et al, 2016).

This has led to calls for greater understanding of the complex underlying causes of people’s vulnerabilities to energy poverty, and for insights into how non-energy policies and processes of governance may have an indirect impact on people’s energy use, access, and affordability.

The research that forms of the focus of this presentation used in-depth qualitative interviews to examine welfare and employment policies and show their influence on people’s energy needs, their ability to meet those needs and their quality of life and wellbeing. The paper gives insight into the interrelations between energy vulnerability and poverty, and discusses the implications of more complex understandings of fuel poverty for governance.

The seminar will be followed by a drinks reception from about 6.30pm.


About the speaker

Catherine Butler, University of Exter
Dr Catherine Butler is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography within the Environment and Sustainability Research group at University of Exeter. Her research examines issues of governance and public participation in responses to socio-environmental challenges. She is currently Principle Investigator on an EPSRC-funded grant examining the impacts of welfare and employment policy on energy demand problems. She has published widely on social dimensions of energy system transitions and climate change adaptation, and she is the convener of the British Sociological Association Climate Change Study Group.

Top image: Photo by Phil Pearson on Unsplash