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Building related energy poverty in developed countries – Past, present, and future from a Canadian perspective

Tardy, François / Lee, Bruno

Highlights • In the past 15 years, household energy costs in Canada have risen at a much faster pace than real income, particularly in low-income households. Within-the-home energy poverty rates, as determined by various metrics, have followed suit. • Low-income households across Canada consume the least amount of energy per year and per unit heated area. They also tend to live in smaller dwellings which require more energy per unit floor area. • Low-income households tend to live in older, rented dwellings which are retrofitted less often than owner-occupied dwellings and are the least exposed to energy-saving technology. • Other developed countries, particularly in Europe, have studied energy poverty and affordability across their populations and have used their results to analyse cases of freeloading and split-incentive and to optimize government subsidy programs. • Energy efficiency rating systems for dwellings have been designed in some countries to help manage subsidies and determine patterns contributing to energy inefficiency. • Energy rate increases across developed nations are part of a global trend which could be alleviated through sponsored retrofitting and income transfers. • Several solutions can assist in reversing the increasing rates of energy poverty in Canada, including reinstating non-profit housing programs, providing on-site renewable energy generation and defining energy as a basic need.

Abstract Energy in households is explored in the context of households in the Canadian built environment, in which considerable amounts of energy must be consumed as heating energy over the winter months, particularly in older or low-income dwellings. Recent Canadian poverty trends are explored and are analyzed in conjunction to the country’s rising energy rates and effects on affordability. Past and current measures aimed at improving the existing housing stock in Canada and in other countries are explored, including retrofitting, behavioural change and renewable energy generation. The issue of thermal comfort in social housing programs is discussed, with examples from both developed and developing countries. Potential remedies to energy poverty situations in Canada are presented by discussing similar programs from other countries, including classification techniques and data analysis measures. Results from other countries and potential benefits to Canada are demonstrated, and the Quebec model of socially mandated energy is highlighted as an example which can be adopted by other provinces.