The EmpowerMed project aims to address energy poverty in the Mediterranean region, by empowering affected communities, especially women, through engagement, support and policy recommendations.
Title
Brief description
EmpowerMed’s scope is addressing energy poverty, with a specific focus on empowering women in coastal areas of the Mediterranean countries. This is done through a variety of approaches, combining practical and technical solutions with social and justice approaches, and collecting data.
Keywords
City/Country
Time period
2019- ongoing (until 2023)
Lever(s)
Policy, regulation & governance
Culture, civic participation & social innovation
Capcity & capability
Methodologies
Collective Advisory Assemblies
- Brings together affected communities for peer support, collective learning, data collection and guidance.
- Builds community capacity and collective intelligence to find solutions collectively.
Monitoring Campaign
- Collects gender disaggregated data on energy poverty.
- Monitoring is participatory; CAA participants respond to surveys and also share their experiences of their indoor heating and environmental comfort. Data collection is supported by sensors in the home
World Region
Scale(s) of the case analysed
Target audience and dimension
Domain(s) of application
Context addressed
Solution applied
Challenge addressed/ Problem-led approach
Barriers addressed
Main Practices
Impact
Co benefits
Engagement Journey
Impact to climate neutrality
EmpowerMed focuses on energy poverty. Effects of climate change are likely to exacerbate existing energy poverty and insecurity. Furthermore, climate policies relating to energy must consider the impact of changes in policy and energy sources on the most vulnerable and affected communities.
Context & Public policy of reference
EmpowerMed aims to influence policies on energy poverty at EU level.
Innovative approach(es) addressed
Nearly 60 million people in Europe experience energy poverty, and women are especially affected. Energy poverty means that people may be unable to adequately heat their homes, or afford to fulfil basic daily needs that require energy including cooking, hot water, lighting and powering electrical appliances. This has knock-on effects on many aspects of health and wellbeing, and energy poverty cuts across many domains, making it “a complex, interdisciplinary, intersectional, and multidimensional issue, especially in the context of the pressing threat of climate change”.
Vision:
Ideally, the CAAs and related EmpowerMed activities will lead to a reduction in energy costs for affected participants, enabled by the collective intelligence and energy that the project generates. It will also generate more accurate fine-grained evidence on energy poverty and elevate lived experience, leading to stronger policy development to tackle the issue.
Initiator
EmpowerMed is a Horizon2020 project with nine partners from seven countries. Partners are a combination of NGOs, academia and civil society organisations.
Stakeholder networks and organisational model
Stakeholders:
- Local, national and EU policymakers- Make use of data, policy formulations
- Utility companies- Monitoring energy consumption, guidance
- Experts- Research, data analysis, dissemination
- Alliance against Energy Poverty (Catalonia)- Organisation of CAAs
Network, communication and governance:
1. The main form of citizen engagement in EmpowerMed is through participation in Collective Advisory Assemblies. CAAs are a protected space that prioritises the needs, experiences and knowledge of those most affected by energy poverty. During these two-hour meetings, participants receive guidance from peers and activists on what actions they can take to improve their situation, and if needed are supported outside of the Assembly to do this. Thus the CAAs are never held in isolation from related support activities.
i. In addition to receiving this advice, the CAAs provide an important space for participants to share and discuss their experiences of energy poverty, with the aim of empowering the women most affected to harness their collective agency. This is opposed to common framings of women as vulnerable disempowered victims of energy poverty.
ii. The CAAs are also an important vehicle for enabling the collection of data and monitoring of energy poverty to hold authorities to account and drive stronger policies to tackle energy poverty. This is done through a monitoring campaign supported through the CAA, where participants learn about the role of monitoring improving services, respond to surveys, and volunteer to take sensors home to monitor indoor heating and comfort.
iii. The CAAs are never held in isolation, but are rather one of the main ways in which people are engaged. Through the CAAs, related activities are carried out such as the monitoring campaign. Additional support, such as accompanying people to utilities appointments, can be arranged outside of the assembly setting.
iv. The logic of the CAA is to build collective intelligence over time through peer learning, so that affected communities are empowered through their shared knowledge and experience.
v. CAAs are held regularly and participants are supported by organisers in additional workshops or follow up actions as needed.
2. During the Collective Advisory Assemblies, decisions are taken collectively. Central to this approach is that the CAA is a form of horizontal participation where affected people engage in an equal playing field where their lived experience is acknowledged and welcomed.
3. Outside of the CAAs, decisionmaking may be done differently.
Communication:
- Communication during the CAAs is led by participants and supported by an ‘assembly of peers’, activists and others who have experienced energy poverty. Whilst participants do receive guidance on what to do, this comes from peers and not top down from external experts or utility companies directly during the CAA. This horizontal approach is central to empowering affected communities.
- Participants themselves share their experiences and also disseminate information in their own neighbourhoods and communities. Decisions are made collectively and typically participants agree to take actions before the next assembly meeting. This social accountability is supported by the expectation that the same people return to the CAAs, which are biweekly.
Dedicated website, Academic publications and Policy materials
The Monitoring Campaign outlined above uses environmental sensors which volunteer participants take into their homes to monitor air temperature and other environmental indicators.
Democratic Purpose
Participant Recruitment
nteraction between participants
Resources
Key enablers
1. CAAs helped to create collective knowledge, empowering affected people as experts through their lived experience and knowledge gained through peer learning.
2. They helped to create a support network for people, including emotional support and tackling a sense of isolation.
3. They helped to generate practical solutions through thinking together and learning about actions that worked for others.
These are taken from the CAA training module.
Key inhibiting factors
One key challenge was ensuring good communication with the wider public and communities. Multiple channels were used including in person meetings in different neighbourhoods.
Energy poverty is a complex issue experienced in complex context; the CAAs cannot provide solutions for all associated problems.
Cases of people needing help were endless and it was hard to keep track of everything and everyone.
Participants could not always attend consistently due to personal circumstances.
Taken from the CAA training module.
Drawbacks/pros/cons of the solutions (after implementation)
Scalability
Key lessons
Indicators
The expect impacts of EmpowerMed are listed as:
- 10,200 people empowered to tackle energy poverty
- 6 pilot areas
- Primary energy savings: 6.5GWh/year
- Reduction of 1,600t CO2 emissions/year
- 160,000 € of investments in sustainable energy
- 780,000 € of economic savings
- Contributions to policy and best practice development on energy poverty
External link
Jessel, S. et al (2019). Energy, Poverty, and Health in Climate Change: A Comprehensive Review of an Emerging Literature. Frontiers in Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00357
Ortiz, J. et al (2021). Tackling Energy Poverty through Collective Advisory Assemblies and Electricity and Comfort Monitoring Campaigns. Sustainability, 13, 9671. https://
doi.org/10.3390/su13179671
Sareen, S. et al (2020). European energy poverty
metrics: scales, prospects and limits. Global Transitions, vol. 2, pp. 26-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glt.2020.01.003
SOGESCA (2020). Collective Advisory Assemblies: training module. EmpowerMed. https://www.empowermed.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Collective-assemblies-module-and-powerpoint-En.pdf
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