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.