Canada needs an energy poverty strategy. Here’s what it might look like.

With COP27 - UN Climate Change Conference now underway in Egypt,??the question of how to deliver a just transition is very much on the agenda.?

Greening a country’s economy in a way that’s fair and inclusive is a complex issue with challenges that vary from country to country. But one of the issues that many governments need to grapple with is?energy poverty –?the inability??of households to adequately heat, cool, or light their homes.??

In October 2022, the David Suzuki Foundation released?Keeping the Lights On,?a pioneering new report on energy poverty in Canada, an important issue that’s still flying under the radar for??Canada’s policymakers.?

This report is co-authored by SEG Co-director Professor Mari Martiskainen and Dr Runa R Das, an??Associate Professor at Royal Roads University. It sets out a series of actionable, evidence-based policy recommendations that could serve as a starting point for a Canadian energy poverty strategy.?

Last week, Das visited the Sussex Energy Group to tell us about her work.?

A changing energy landscape

Canada is making pretty good progress when it comes decarbonizing its electricity supply. It currently generates 82% of its electricity from non-emitting sources like hydro, nuclear, wind and solar. (In the UK, the percentage is a less impressive 55%).???

But unless they are carefully designed, electricity transitions can make energy poverty worse. This is because they can make energy costs go up, at least in the short term. If we electrify our heating and transportation systems, for example, we’re increasing electricity demand – and that can create a spike in energy prices.??Moving to a different system can also have big upfront costs, as new technologies like solar panels, heat pumps, and electric cars aren’t cheap.?

Filling in the blanks

Canada doesn’t yet officially recognise energy poverty in its statistics, or have strategies for reducing it. That’s why this new report is particularly useful. A mix of quantitative and qualitative data, it not only helps flesh out the extent and character of energy poverty in Canada, but also offers clear guidance on how to tackle it.??

Das and Martiskainen estimate that between 7%??and 9% of Canadian households are living in energy poverty, depending on how you measure it. It’s also particularly concentrated in the Atlantic provinces. When factoring in housing costs, the percentage of households in energy poverty can climb as high as 24% in Prince Edward Island, and 23% in Newfoundland and Labrador.?

With its mix of quantitative and qualitative interviews, the report also opens a window into what it’s like to live in energy poverty – with the all the acute stress, discomfort, shame, embarrassment, and even health problems it leads to.??Here is what some interviewees said about living in energy poverty:?

Four things Canada’s policymakers could start doing right away

Using the full range of the data they gathered, Das and Martiskainen also generate a series??policy steps that governments could take right away to start tackling energy poverty both in the short and long term.??These recommendations are clustered around four distinct priorities:

1. Adopting an explicit energy poverty strategy
2. Providing a universal (clean) energy service that includes cooling as well as heating services
3. Ensuring energy is affordable?
4. Decarbonising and making residential buildings more energy efficient?

?If you’d like to find out more about energy poverty in Canada, or what might be done about it, check out the full report?here.