Dr Nicola Willand

Mapping Cross-National Conceptions of Essential Energy to Advance Housing Energy Justice

Universal access to essential energy is a United Nation Sustainable Development Goal and a derived human right linked to health and adequate housing, however, ‘essential energy’ is not well defined and context specific. As a result, low carbon housing initiatives risk overlooking vulnerabilities and inadvertently (re)producing energy poverty. This study will leverage the cross-national collaboration and leadership of Prof. Middlemiss (Leeds) in the WELLBASED project to explore the varied conceptions of essentialness of domestic energy across the UK, Spain, Hungary, Latvia, Turkey and the Netherlands. The project will entail analysis of WELLBASED intervention plans, interviews and focus groups with WELLBASED professionals and practitioners. Comparing how stakeholders across diverse climatic, social, environmental and housing contexts understand and are working towards ensuring access to ‘essential energy’ will lead to novel insights into the geographies of energy justice and provide evidence that can inform more equitable housing policies and energy poverty mitigation programmes.