Empowering women to take action against energy poverty in the Mediterranean

ended

In the Mediterranean countries, the coastal areas are facing several specific challenges when it comes to energy poverty, mainly connected with thermal comfort of dwellings. Buildings are scarcely isolated, often there are no heating systems in buildings, or those are highly inefficient, and the cooling component is more important than in other areas, calling for a diversity of energy services beyond heating. Women and women-led households are disproportionately affected by energy poverty, while women’s agency is highlighted in acting against energy poverty. Although there is some knowledge on the health impacts of energy poverty, involving health practitioners in the energy poverty action is rare. This is why the main objective of the project is to contribute to energy poverty abatement in the Mediterranean through a) implementing a set of practical energy efficiency and RES measures, tailored to empower households in energy poverty and specifically focused on women and health, b) assessing their efficiency and impacts to formulate policy recommendations and c) promoting policy solutions among key actors for stimulating action against energy poverty at local and EU level. The project will first build networks with local actors in pilot regions (WP1) and transfer knowledge and experience to build capacity of all involved actors for implementing practical measures (WP2). The core of the project is implementation of practical measures to tackle energy poverty, such as community approaches, household visits, do-it-yourself approaches, support for small investments and health workshops (WP3). The impacts and success of the implemented measures will be assessed and analysed (WP4) to support formulation of policy recommendations, which will be advocated among key actors to stimulate and support policies against energy poverty (WP5). Project results and outcomes will be disseminated among the target groups to ensure a wide reach out at local, national and EU level.