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From local to national: Tackling fuel poverty in Austria

Panel: 7. Monitoring and evaluation

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Karl-Michael Brunner, Institute for Sociology and Social Research, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Sylvia Mandl, Austrian Institute for Sustainable Development, Austria
Anja Christanell, Austrian Institute for Sustainable Development, Austria

Abstract

Despite media coverage and reports by social organisations stating that the problem is pressing, to date, no official recognition of fuel poverty can be observed in Austria yet. In recent years, a social scientific study has begun to investigate the matter from the perspective of the people concerned and their energy practices, conditions of action, and coping strategies. It became clear that low-income and/or fuel poor households are characterised by a number of energy burdens and that the scope of action is limited in many cases. Therefore, the question arose which measures could be taken to counteract fuel poverty and how the energy burdens of these households could be overcome by increasing the energy efficiency of the homes, among other measures.

Based on the results of this study, the authors have started a new project in late 2011 (funded by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund) which aims to develop, implement and evaluate tailor-made advice services for the improvement of energy efficiency and the mitigation of fuel poverty in 400 to 500 Austrian households. Three different sub-projects covering fuel poor households from urban, suburban as well as rural regions serve as examples of implementation. The programmes and measures will be evaluated regarding their effectiveness and their improvement of advice services. Benefits (e.g. mitigation of burdens related to fuel poverty, reduction of CO2-emissions) and costs will be calculated. On the basis of the evaluation of all three sub-projects, strategies will be developed in close cooperation with stakeholders in order to implement effective efficiency programmes and measures against fuel poverty nationwide.

The paper presents first results from the local sub-project.

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Download this presentation as pdf: 7-122-13_Brunner_pre.pdf

Download this paper as pdf: 7-122-13_Brunner.pdf