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Paper short abstract:

Energy poverty affects the whole Anthropocene with significant regional differences. We unconventionally analyzed Global North (GN) countries with Global South methodologies. This adds new layers of deepness to the analysis of GN energy poverty and could help redefine a cross-regional theory.

Paper long abstract:

Energy poverty affects the Anthropocene. Even though it is already considered the same development problem in both the developed and the developing world, the analysis and measurement significantly differ. While excessive energy cost and its direct consequences are the focus of developed nations of the Global North, developing countries of the Global South focus on the lack of access to adequate energy supply and the unattended fundamental needs brought about. Notably, more and more case studies in the Global South have adopted some of Global North’s perspectives and measurement considerations. However, the opposite does not hold. In this work, we analyzed several Global North case studies with methodologies from the Global South’s energy poverty literature. To do so, we apply an adapted analytical framework based on the Energy Comprehensive Energy poverty Index by Wang et al. (2015) and the Multidimensional energy poverty indexes by Nussbaumer et al. (2011). The results show that this type of analytical exercise could add new layers of deepness to the conclusions and help construct more detailed insights into the lived experiences of the energy poor in the Global North. When the quality of energy supply provision is included in the analysis, the scope of the deprivation suffered by affected households worsens. Moreover, the focus on sustainability of Global South’s approaches could help identify macro implications of energy poverty in the Global North. The knowledge generated in this work could help redefine the methods to analyze, measure, and solve the energy poverty problem cross-regionally.

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Paper short abstract:

We attempt to meta-analyse the impact of modern energy interventions on educational outcomes in developing countries. We show a novel applicative meta-analytic method to identify associated publication bias and further used their meta-data to trace the sources of inherent heterogeneity.

Paper long abstract:

Energy poverty has far-reaching consequences on development outcomes and is closely interlinked with the achievement of several critical SDGs. Education is arguably considered one of those areas where energy intervention can have a deep and significant impact. The piqued interest in this area has proliferated the literature, but the causal effect of energy interventions on educational outcomes in developing countries remains largely inconclusive. We attempt to harmonise this literature by meta-analysing 38 studies using robust Bayesian model averaging methods. We examine the impact of four energy interventions on nine educational outcomes. Incorporating the literature beliefs, we find positive benefits of rural energy interventions on educational outcomes with varying effects on study hours and test scores. Whilst the gain in study hours (2 minutes/day) is practically negligible for the grid and off-grid interventions, the negative effect on test scores is more pronounced by off-grid (solar) (6.2% decline). This may be because of the uncertainty associated with solar interventions. The effect of grid electrification on literacy rate and that of off-grid electrification on educational attainment remain inconclusive. We find that selection bias characterises rural grid electrification and improved cooking stoves literature, while small study bias characterises the literature on solar electrification and the use of TV or radio. We further observe that studies that apply causal inference methods have more homogenised findings. Our findings indicate that grid electrification and improved cooking stoves have the most positive benefits for education. We also recommend causal inference econometric methods for studies examining these impacts.

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Paper short abstract:

We examine the nexus between financial inclusion and energy poverty by analysing data for 48 energy-poor countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America over 2004-2019.

Paper long abstract:

We examine the nexus between financial inclusion and energy poverty. Analysing data for 48 energy-poor countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America over 2004-2019, we employ sequential (two-stage), panel-corrected standard error and two-step dynamic system GMM regression models to control for endogeneity, cross-sectional dependence, slope heterogeneity as well as stationarity and cointegration patterns of the variables. Our empirical results find that financial inclusion significantly reduces energy poverty by way of increasing access to electricity in the selected energy-poor regions. The study also finds a positive significant association between energy access and GDP per capita, while oil price and energy intensity are inversely associated with energy access. The results are robust to different variables, estimation methods and subsamples. These findings have strong policy implications for energy-poor countries and point to the need for appropriate policies to promote financial inclusion as a way of reducing energy poverty.

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Paper short abstract:

An energy-literate population has better energy practices, which are fundamental for balancing the Anthropocene. We propose a novel framework that defines energy literacy conceptual boundaries according to structural factors and helps better understand how to influence people’s energy behaviors.

Paper long abstract:

Adequate, sustainable, and uninterrupted energy practices are indispensable for balancing the Anthropocene. At current conditions, citizen participation is essential since only relying on technological progress and scientific development is not enough. Instead, the success of sustainable development lies in the citizen's ability to make appropriate energy decisions. Energy literacy is defined as the ability of individuals to understand energy functions and knowledge to ensure environmental sustainability. Thus, an informed and energy-literate population will be better prepared to make responsible energy decisions and actions and be able to change consumption habits. The energy realities of world citizens are diverse. Their differences rely on many aspects, such as development status, education, socioeconomic conditions, infrastructure, etc. However, the conventional narrative of energy literacy is embedded within a traditional, broad, and general conceptual framework, which is generally applied to every situation without differentiation. To close this gap, we propose a sustainable energy literacy framework that defines conceptual boundaries and levels of energy literacy according to the development status of the population, causal processes, and other structural factors. To do so, we start from the work of DeWaters and Powers (2011), who established three interconnected energy literacy dimensions: 1) cognitive, 2) affective, and 3) behavioral. This framework is then tested through personal interviews with urban citizens in Mexico City. The results show how context is fundamental to defining, analyzing, and evaluating energy literacy. The proposed framework provides guidelines to understand better how to influence people’s energy behaviors and individual decision-making and advance toward sustainable development.

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Paper short abstract:

Adoption of community energy projects has increased substantially in Puerto Rico after the 2017 hurricanes that destroyed the power grid and a slow recovery rooted in a complex political status. I study the role of community energy projects on education using empirical methodology.

Paper long abstract:

Puerto Rico was hit by two major hurricanes that led to devastating impacts in September 2017. Hurricane Irma’s and Maria’s sustained rains and winds caused more than 1 billion damages in housing and public infrastructure and destruction of the power grid lines. Several years and tropical storms later, energy has not been fully restored across the archipelago. The political status of Puerto Rico has delayed recovery, as it impedes to fully access to US federal funds, like states do, and to receive loans from international financial institutions.

Community energy projects adoption has increased substantially in the face of unreliable energy distribution, low power quality, and persistent outages especially in the most vulnerable, impoverished, and rural areas in Puerto Rico. In this study, I explore the role of community energy projects on human capital. The literature suggests several potential mechanisms of the effects of electrification on education including improved electricity access from households and schools, more study time at school and home, and financial availability for adoption of electricity storage projects. In the proposed paper, I use Hurricane Maria as a random shock to account for selection on adoption. Using open data source of community storage projects installed at public facilities and school tests scores from standardized exams, I follow a Regression Discontinuity (RD) to control for potential spatial correlation. This study aims to generate evidence on the role of decentralized electrification, that emerges as a way of addressing climate change challenges from a self-governance and collective perspective.

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Paper short abstract:

This study describes the informal waste management chain for off-grid solar products in Malawi and finds fatal levels of lead and acid pollution - highlighting the environmental and human health risks of off-grid solar electrification strategies across sub-Saharan Africa.

Paper long abstract:

To address electricity deprivation, the Malawi Government aim for 45% of the population to have purchased short-lived household-scale off-grid solar products (OGS) by 2030, currently in the absence of adequate waste management infrastructure. This study is the first investigation of the management of waste from off-grid solar products (or any form of electronic waste) in Malawi. 50 semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholder groups in the informal waste management chain for off-grid solar products (vendors, users, repairers, scrap dealers and recyclers) in the capital city of Lilongwe. The fiscal incentives for the sale of OGS products combined with the lack of legislative capacity to control the quality of the products imported is attributed to an unregulated market of short-lived and counterfeit OGS products. Most concerningly, informal lead-acid battery recycling was found to be practised on the streets of densely populated peri-urban communities, and the recycling of one battery was found to release 3 kg of lead pollution - over 100 times the fatal oral dose for an adult, and 3 kg of sulphuric acid - presenting significant environmental concerns. Hence, this study makes the first connection between national off-grid solar electrification strategies and informal lead-acid battery recycling, known to be a primary vector of lead poisoning in sub-Saharan Africa. This highlights that using OGS technologies as a strategy for sustainable development presents substantial public health and environmental risks across sub-Saharan Africa due to the general absence of sophisticated electronic waste management.