Specialist: Every community in Romania is affected by energy poverty

Every community in Romania is affected in one way or another by energy poverty or by some component thereof, George Jiglau, university lecturer at Babes-Bolyai University, said on Wednesday at a specialist conference on the involvement of communities in the green transition.A researcher at the think-tank Centre for the Study of Democracy and one of the coordinators of the Romanian Energy Poverty Observatory (ORSE), Jiglau said that the standard approach of energy poverty concerns three main issues: low incomes, high energy prices, high bills, and low energy efficiency of homes."Low efficiency means that it puts you in the very common situation of over-consumption," he said. According to him, the higher energy consumption than normal means that the house is not thermally insulated; it is energy inefficient. "Amid high energy bills and the fear of consuming too much, if you live in a thermally inefficient home, you intentionally consume less to the point of discomfort," said Jiglau. He called this situation "a hidden energy poverty" because "very often it is said that the energy poor are the ones who pay a lot for energy."He added that although more than three years have passed since the adoption of law 226/2021 establishing social protection measures for vulnerable energy consumers, "energy needs are not included in the legislation."On behalf of ORSE, Jiglau mentioned some general solutions to combat energy poverty, including weatherisation, renovation of the old housing stock and housing standards for new houses, as well as awareness of the differences between energy efficiency in rural and urban areas.The specialist also recommended some measures to alleviate energy poverty in Romania: thermal upgrade of homes; installation of renewable energy sources; energy efficiency measures; access to cheap, accessible and sustainable energy; establishing a fund managed by the government that would take over the burden of the bills of households in default of payment, establishing at the level of local administrations of uniform guides that would offer integrated and accessible services.He also emphasised mandatory cooperation between local, county and regional administrations, central administrations and energy companies in order to mitigate energy poverty in Romania.Geothermal energy, waste management and its recovery from the Norwegian and Romanian perspective were the themes of the conference on the involvement of communities in the green transition, funded by Innovation Norway, and organised on Wednesday in Bucharest by Freedom House Romania and the Romanian Centre for European Policies.The event is part of a series of initiatives of the project "Empowering Communities for the Green Transition: Romania - Norway Knowledge Exchange for Clean Energy & Building Renovation" supported by grants awarded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the financial mechanism - Fund for Bilateral Relations - EEA and NORWAY GRANTS in Romania.