![]() No one single factor is driving this trend, but the disproportionate incidence of energy poverty underscores the need for an intentional response to address racial inequities. (Our Energy Poverty Backgrounder offers additional insights.)ĬUSP’s preliminary analysis of energy poverty rates among racialized, recent immigrant, and Indigenous households indicates that the impacts of structural racism are evident in the higher rates of energy poverty likely to be experienced by traditionally marginalized communities. Energy poverty affects households with diverse income ranges, and individuals who live in a variety of housing types all across the country. There is no “typical” scenario or single cause. Using 2016 Census data, the CUSP Energy Poverty and Equity Explorer tool enables users to visualize different levels of home-energy cost burdens, along with other variables such as housing quality and affordability indicators, income and poverty status indicators, and racialization indicators at various geographical scales. For purposes of policy discussion, CUSP uses this 6 per cent threshold of home energy cost burden to define households that experience energy poverty. Households that spend more than twice this value on home energy services, can be said to experience high home energy cost burdens. For most Canadians, this value is below 3 per cent, which is to say that the median Canadian household spends less than 3 per cent of its after-tax income meeting its home energy needs. ![]() Home energy cost burdens are reported as the percentage of total after-tax household income that is spent on home heating and electricity. Using this metric, households that shoulder disproportionate home-energy cost burdens are said to be experiencing energy poverty. As a result, the Canadian Urban Sustainability Practitioners (CUSP) and Canadian academics rely on home energy cost burden as the proxy for measuring energy poverty. Many of these metrics, while attainable in Europe, are not available in Canada where the issue of energy poverty is nascent. Researchers can measure energy poverty using one or more metrics when available, including home energy costs relative to household income, subjective reporting of comfort, access to the electricity grid or clean energy technologies, and occurrence of utility disconnection. Difficulty participating fully in community life.Higher stress and poor mental health outcomes for adults.Increased incidence of respiratory illness in children and infants. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |