Ελληνικα
The online workshop “Energy Poverty – A Multidimensional Global Phenomenon” was held on Tuesday March 9th, 2021 and it was organised by the University of Bahrain, INZEB and the EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network. Its aim was to raise awareness in regards to energy poverty, to analyse the terms energy poverty and energy vulnerability, to discuss the different factors that result to the increase of energy poverty levels in different regions and present EU initiatives aiming to support households and the society in mitigation of the social problem.
Prof. Riyad Y Hamzah, President, University of Bahrain, did the welcome remarks, highlighting the importance of this workshop in addressing the issue of energy poverty.
Dr. Mustapha Taoumi, Energy Technology Key Expert, EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, in his opening speech pointed out that energy poverty is a phenomenon affected by multiple factors and observed not only in developing but also in developed countries.
Then, Alice Corovessi, Managing Director, INZEB, took the floor and explored in depth the factors that affect energy poverty. She also presented the facts concerning energy poverty and how they differ in developed and in emerging countries. As she stated, “Around 20% of global population is deprived of access to electricity, reflects the prevalence of energy poverty on global scale & the magnitude of the issues stemming from this situation.”
Dr. Haris Doukas, Assoc. Professor, National Technical University of Athens, stressed out through his presentation that the collective approach fostered by energy communities and/or crowdfunding, is suitable for the enormous challenges faced by citizens suffering from energy poverty who wish to take action to reduce their energy consumption or improve the energy efficiency of their households. He also demonstrated that “The more energy consumes, the more vulnerable you might be in the future.”
The next presenter was Kyriaki Metaxa, Program Coordinator, Ecology, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Greece, and she highlighted that combined efforts concentrated on promoting rational energy consumption, on ameliorating buildings’ energy efficiency and on supporting community energy, indirectly boost citizens’ income and address energy poverty effectively. She concluded that “Synergies between actors at all levels are required in order to raise awareness, target energy vulnerable citizens, utilize European funds to de-risk investments and to overcome initial capital barrier, split-incentives etc.”
The last part of the workshop was the Q &A session, where the speakers discussed on the issues and the questions posed by the participants of the workshop.
Dr. Hanan Albuflasa, Assistant Professor at Department of Physics, University of Bahrain, was responsible for the moderation of the discussion throughout the workshop, and she made sure the main questions that were raised by the attendees to be answered by the speakers.
The video of the workshop is available here.
The presentations of the speakers of the event are available in the links below.
