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Short abstract:

The presentation will explore the frontier between energy sufficiency and energy poverty, based on the results of an in-depth fieldwork with energy-poor households. It will discuss the possibility (or not) of continuities between the two notions and their consequences for the energy transition.

Long abstract:

The notion of energy poverty emerged in the 2000s in France to capture situations in which households faced difficulties in affording their energy bills and heating their homes. First characterized as a ratio of energy expenses over revenues, it was then sharpened through the development of descriptive, qualitative or multicriteria approaches.

The notion of energy sufficiency emerged more recently in the French public debate in order to flag the capacity of households to voluntarily mitigate energy consumption by changing their way of life. It has been identified as an essential lever to mitigate climate change in the last IPCC report.

While each notion respectively faces debates about its relevance and normative reach, the distinction between the two has not been clearly addressed yet. The border between energy poverty and energy sufficiency could however be regarded as both a key distinction and a grey area. Qualifying situations as of energy poverty does not always meet consensus as even indexes may diverge. Conversely, households identified energy-poor may undertake actions that they do not consider as restriction to their needs.

Our presentation will build on a sample of 21 French households, identified energy-poor, with whom we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews during the year 2018, and analyzed both their detailed household budget and their daily heating/mobility practices. The analysis will discuss the similarities and differences between the notions of sufficiency and poverty, and consider a sub-sample to discuss the possibility (or not) of continuities between the them, and their consequences for the energy transition.