The co-constitutive relationship between poverty and energy access has been a recurrent theme in development literature for decades. The poverty-energy nexus was mentioned in the Bruntland Report (1986), the UN Conference in Rio (1992)...
moreThe co-constitutive relationship between poverty and energy access has been a recurrent theme in development literature for decades. The poverty-energy nexus was mentioned in the Bruntland Report (1986), the UN Conference in Rio (1992) and the World Energy Assessment (2000; NEF, 2008) – and yet an understanding of the complexity of energy poverty continues to form something of a ‘missing link’ in the development debate. A critical reason for this is that although the term energy poverty is employed with increasing frequency, the definition and measurement of energy poverty remains problematic. Attempts to define and measure energy poverty have increased in recognition of the vital role it plays in broader poverty, but have simultaneously revealed a complex dynamic that increases the difficulty of definition and measurement.
